Team LPYS
by Ocadioan
Summary: A fighting gal, a cynical guy and two Faunus fall into a forest; Team LPYS comes out. This is the story of how Team LPYS was formed during its trials, hardships and years at Beacon. Set years before RWBY.
1. Introductions

Alrighty then, let me try to keep this brief and to the point. This series occurs before RWBY airs and will not feature anything more than cameos/brief interactions with the older RWBY cast. It is written purely to explore the dynamics of the main team and how they respond to events and trials.I will try to keep it as close to RWBY canon as possible(future episodes may ruin this), and have the characters as grounded as possible. Enjoy.

* * *

 **Introductions**

 **Yonsa Chén Zhuáng De**

Yonsa marvelled at the airship that he was currently in. If they had had such things back in Anima, it would have been a lot easier travelling from town to town without needing to fear the Grimm. Then again, if such devices had been common, he likely would not have had a job to keep him fed.

The thought of the long treks between the towns of Anima made him reach for the pocket inside his cloak where he kept his supply of edible roots. It wasn't that he was particularly hungry, but he had always liked chewing on stuff while he travelled from place to place, though he did suppose that the habit might have developed from trying to stave off actual hunger.

The cloak was an old and ragged thing that had only recently begun to fit him properly. It had plenty of internal pockets to store items that could not be in his backpack, and its brown colour made it easy to hide in the vegetation if Grimm was nearby, though he supposed its original colour might have done the same thing. Who knew, perhaps the laundry machines of Beacon could accomplish what dozens of washes in the rivers of Anima could not and turn it back to its original green colour.

"We are now approaching Beacon Academy. Please gather your things and prepare to exit", the speakers announced.

Yonsa already had everything he owned with him. His extra clothes and supplies were in his backpack and his spear was tied to it, so as to not seem armed. Had he been on the road in Anima, he would have used the spear as a walking cane, in part to provide easy testing of treacherous terrain, but more importantly, to be ready for any sudden Grimm attacks.

His spear was like the rest of his clothes, unassuming and there to fulfil a purpose. Its dark oak shaft had broken and been replaced over the years, as had everything else on it aside from the metal head. It was good durable metal, and the only thing that he really valued on the spear. Well, he supposed he also gave some value to the red sash tied around the metal head to protect it from the elements, and which was fastened at the connections between the shaft and the head. It had been a gift.

The airship soon came to a halt and everyone began departing. Yonsa followed them without further ado. His gnawing on a root did attract some curious glances initially, but they were soon bored with it. Just as well. It was much easier to study people when they didn't pay attention to you.

Yonsa knew that he would have to find a partner and team for the duration of his education, and like when you picked out trade caravans, it was necessary to know which ones could be useful and which ones could not. Everyone travelling between the towns of Anima would either quickly learn that or die somewhere on the road. Whether it was from a bandit attack, Grimm or the trade caravan robbing and leaving you, the end would be all the same.

There were a few characters that stood out amongst the crowd. One was from Anima, like him, as evidenced by her style of attire. She had a light chest plate with sharp shoulder pads that was mostly black, except for the golden edges. Underneath it, she had red clothing that looked to be of very good quality. Her black shoulder-length hair was pulled behind her ears, exposing more of her pale neck than otherwise would have been visible from the side. With no baggage or weapon visible on her, Yonsa guessed that she had had someone take care of them for her. There was no doubt in his mind that she was amongst Mistral's upper class, though he could not fathom why she would not just attend Haven. Her parents' influence was unlikely to reach all the way to Vale after all.

 _She could be a good meal ticket_ , Yonsa mused unfazed, _then again, her family might very well just make me disappear to save the family name._

He quickly decided that it would be better just to stay clear of her, though not to any extent that she might think he was actively avoiding her. Who knew if she might take offense and have her family do it anyway?

Yonsa had not met anyone from Mistral's upper class, but from the stories that he had heard, the best way to survive them was to bow your head, stay out of their way and pretend that you were not there. If you did that, they were more likely to pretend that too, and then everyone would be happy.

The others that sprang to attention were mostly Faunus, though that had more to do with them being easily identifiable from the crowd. Still, even if the bear Faunus had not had brown bear ears, he would still have been easily identifiable by his enormous size.

Yonsa considered himself average of height, and this guy easily towered over him with at least a head or two, and he was practically as wide as two Yonsas standing side by side. It wasn't just size either, as the well-defined muscles underneath his clothes were only too visible.

 _He could break me in half with one hand_ , Yonsa mused with trepidation, _might be potential for a teammate. I could use him for anything that requires raw power, and opponents would be more likely to notice him in a fight than me._

Provided that he was not all show, Yonsa could definitely see potential uses for him. Him being a faunus would have subtracted from his overall rating, if not for his size making it unlikely for anyone to try and discriminate against him openly. Plus, that size intimidation would transfer to his companions as well.

Mentally noting to keep a closer eye on bear guy, Yonsa continued studying the other initiates for possible advantages and disadvantages. He managed to also keep an eye on where they were going while he was studying the others, as always keeping one eye on the environment was a necessary skill to survive in the wilderness beyond the walls.

Sooner than later, they were in a grand hall with a stage had been set up for the opening speech at the end. A somewhat middle-aged guy with glasses, silver hair and a cane soon took the stage.

"Hello, my name is Professor Ozpin. I am the headmaster of Beacon", he started saying, quickly quieting down everyone, "Many of you have come here for one reason or another. Whether to find fame, become the best, gain wealth or some other reason, I tell you now that your reason for being here will be challenged during your stay here. You will find little fame and less wealth. There will always be someone better than you, and you may very well die before ever seeing your other goals completed."

 _Chipper fellow_ , Yonsa mused sarcastically as he continued scanning the crowd for reactions. Their reactions to his speech might show some of who they were and why they were here.

One girl with red hair, a long green formal dress and a katana strapped to her side looked like she couldn't believe what the headmaster had just told them. Then again, Yonsa could not imagine what she thought she was signing up for if that was her fighting attire. A long dress like that would only get in the way of her feet, except of course if it was in the style usually employed by the common people of Anima, where there was a slit all the way down to allow leg movement.

Yonsa himself had a traditional Anima working dress on that only went to his thighs, and which had pants underneath and a whitish sash acting as a belt. Unlike his cloak, his inner attire had faded to a lighter dusty brown from the darker brown that they had originally been in.

The headmaster soon finished up and they were told further instructions about where to sleep until they were properly initiated on the morrow. The others were still chatting about what he had meant by his sombre speech.

Yonsa assumed that it was meant to gauge reactions and separate the wheat from the chaff. Not that he really cared. Beacon was simply the place that would provide him with a necessary set of skills, so whatever reasons its headmaster deemed necessary to act as a Huntsman was of no real concern to him.

After being led to a large room, where they were told to spend the night, Yonsa started to make a nest in one of the corners. Luckily, sleeping bags had been provided for them, or else he would have had to sleep in his cloak.

There were a few tussles and other shenanigans between the other initiates, but nothing that overly added or subtracted any points in his evaluation of them. The one thing he did find odd was that the boys and girls had been told to share the room, though then again, from the instructions earlier, it sounded like teams were sharing rooms, so they might just not have cared if it started one night earlier.

Still, it was quite a bold policy to have for co-eds to be sharing rooms. Yonsa briefly wondered how they had managed to get that past the parents, and upon thinking of that, he wondered what would happen to the roommates of the rich girl from earlier. If she didn't just buy her own room, then her parents were likely to severely threaten any males in her team.

Oh well, it would not be his problem, as he was very unlikely to pick her as a teammate, and she likely didn't even know that he existed. A fact that Yonsa would work to keep that way.

The next morning was fairly uneventful. They had breakfast and then prepared for their initiation. In Yonsa's case, that simply meant dumping his travelling cloak with the rest of his stuff and removing the red sash that protected his spearhead from the elements.

As he understood it, it was supposed to be a relatively short mission to gauge their skills, so he was unlikely to need anything from the pockets in his cloak, and it would only get in the way if there was heavy undergrowth in the forest.

With no new information about the others, he supposed that the initiation mission would provide him with valuable info about the others in real world situations. If possible, he would like to study bear guy further.

They were led out to the edge of a cliff overlooking a forest and told to stand on some platforms that did not look like they belonged in the scenery. Some careful prodding indicated that there was some sort of spring supporting them underneath.

"Hello again", the assistant teacher said, "in a few moments, you will be launched from these platforms and down to the forest below. You will be expected to form your own landing strategy."

 _Could have used the cloak now_ , Yonsa mused slightly annoyed, _it would have made for a decent parachute to lessen the fall._

"Once there, you will be assigned the partner that you will spend the rest of your team at Beacon with", she continued, "that partner will be the first that you make eye contact with-"

 _Wait what!?_ , Yonsa suddenly thought alarmed, _and leave it to chance? No freaking way!_

"- you and your partner will head to the ruins in the northern end of the forest and retrieve a relic, which you are to bring back to this cliff", she continued like she had not just dropped a bombshell on everyone, "you will be graded for both your interactions with the Grimm and your fellow students. That is all. Prepare to be launched."

 _Alright, I can still influence this_ , Yonsa rationalized, _I just have to treat the others as Grimm and only engage if I at least approve of the match. Since everyone will be headed towards the same direction, I just have to head there without anyone noticing and wait for a suitable candidate._

The launching off had already begun, and aside from the bear guy being thrown significantly shorter than the ones before him, they went off without a hitch.

Sooner than he would have liked, it became Yonsa's turn to get catapulted off. He still had no definitive landing strategy, only a general idea that he needed to convert as much vertical speed into horizontal speed as possible. If he could do that and avoid ramming into something, air resistance would take care of the rest.

He angled his body to get as close to 45 degrees as he could and aimed for the branches of a suitable tree. As he hit it, he momentarily upped his strength by a bit to provide the necessary push with his legs to mostly convert his remaining vertical speed into horizontal. From there, it was a much simpler task of simply not hitting anything as he decelerated.

 _So far so good_ , he mused, _now all I have to do is not get noticed. The treetops ought to suffice._

He quickly jumped up into one of the trees and tested its strength. Good, it didn't rustle too much. He hadn't expected it to, as he did not weigh that much. From up here, there was a decent view of the shrubbery below, and the trees seemed dense enough to allow him to traverse them without having to get down.

He quickly headed northwards, passing a few Huntsmen and Huntresses on the way. A lot of them were already paired up, and those that were still single didn't appear promising. Well, rich girl had seemed quite a formidable fighter, even without a visible weapon, and he suspected that she had also noticed him passing, but he was not getting involved with her. He also dearly hoped that she either hadn't recognized him or wouldn't take offense to being passed over.

Another that he passed over was the girl with the long dress, though her performance had not exactly improved his opinion of her. Unfortunately, he had not seen bear guy yet. With the situation as it was, he would have to chance it, unless the guy proved useless beforehand.

As he continued making his way to the ruins, he briefly wondered if he should up his speed to get there faster. In the end, he decided against it, as his aura might be needed elsewhere. Besides, it was not like he had to fight Grimm on the way, like all the people on the ground had to.

His time in Anima had taught him many things about how to avoid Grimm, but one of the most important lessons was that the Grimm were practically endless. Unless you had a specific reason to engage them, it was better to pass them over 9 out of 10 times.

When he finally reached the edge of the forest, he was able to spot the ruins with the relics. They were empty at the moment, but he still checked his surroundings to make sure that no one was near. It wouldn't do to get sloppy near the end.

Confident that there was no one near, he proceeded to examine the ruins. There was a circle of pedestals with a small stone idol on each, except for a few that had obviously already been taken. Each idol seemed different at first, but upon closer inspection, there were a pair of each kind.

 _Ah, so that is how it is_ , Yonsa realized.

If they had not said that they would be keeping an eye on them, he would have taken a number of idols from the untouched pairs and waited to see which other pair seemed the most compatible. As it was, he merely returned to his hiding spot in the treetops and waited for a suitable partner to arrive. Someone had to arrive sooner or later.

While he waited, a few pairs came and went. He made sure to note down which idol each one took as a reference. Eventually, rich girl appeared and was still without a partner.

Should he take her anyway? From what he had seen of her fighting earlier, she would certainly be a boost in that area.

The sound of gunfire from the nearby forest broke his thoughts. Hoping for a second choice, he immediately headed towards the sounds. He heard rich girl follow his example somewhat behind him, so he used his Semblance to boost his speed in an effort to get there faster than rich girl.

Upon arriving at the scene, he noted a blue-haired wolf faunus girl in a tight-fitting one-piece jumpsuit with a grey front, black sides and red lines marking the edge between the black and grey. Strangely, her hair was coloured lapis lazuli colour, but her voluminous tail was red with a splash of white at the end.

On her hands, there were metal hand claws with 4 claws each and a gun-like device protruding from the back of her hand that had a line connecting them to ammo chambers on her forearms.

She was surrounded by at least a dozen beowolves and looked like she was somewhat exhausted, but otherwise in good condition.

 _Should I let rich girl get her?_ , he wondered.

It wasn't that he had anything against Faunus. In fact, their abilities often made them valuable allies, provided that you could trust them to not turn you over to the White Fang. If he recalled correctly, wolves had good night vision, and her tail looked like it would be make for an excellent pillow to keep warm with, though its owner might object if it was still attached to her.

No, the problem was that other people discriminated against them, which he would have to also deal with if he was on a team with one. Bear guy was different due to his imposing size, but this one would be an easy target…was what he thought until she chewed through the dozen Grimm with hardly any effort.

 _She'll do_ , he thought with awe as he dropped down with enough rustling to attract her attention. She immediately assumed it was another Grimm and promptly pointed her wrist-guns at him. He waved at her in a non-threatening manner, though without smiling.

Upon closer inspection, he could see that she had red eyes and looked a little taller than himself. Behind him, the rustling of leaves indicated that rich girl had just arrived at the scene. He really didn't want to turn around and face the rich girl that he had not only passed over, but also stolen a possible partner from.

"Are you two partnered?", wolf girl asked curiously.

"No", Yonsa answered in what he hoped would be a non-offensive voice to rich girl.

"Alright, then I suppose we two are then", wolf girl answered with a nod, before a large rustling sound from behind her alerted everyone. By the sound of it, its size had to be that of an ursa.

Wolf girl had her wrist-guns trained on the sound, rich girl had taken up a defensive martial arts stance, though still without a weapon visible, and Yonsa had gripped his spear and prepared to lunge if necessary. It would probably be best to follow the more trigger happy people's lead until they got a proper set of rules of engagement up and running.

It turned out to be another disappointment for wolf girl, as bear guy emerged from the shrubbery. Yonsa supposed that he would be the only one large enough to make that much noise. He was wearing a brown and yellow set of heavy armour with a matching warhammer.

"Well, I guess you've got your partner too now", wolf girl commented to rich girl with what Yonsa believed to be a bit of annoyance in her voice. It was fine though, he would have preferred bear guy too, "now, how about some introductions? I'm Lafiel Lamprose."

"Yonsa Chén Zhuáng De", Yonsa continued with a small wave to everyone.

"My name is Seishin Kuma", bear guy said, before turning to rich girl, "and you are to be my partner?"

"It appears so", rich girl agreed, "and for the record, my name is Pandora of the Azura family. I'm from Mistral."

"Menagerie, born and raised", wolf girl answered.

"Vale, likewise", bear guy followed.

"Anima", Yonsa answered without specifying further. Considering he had only been to Mistral a select few times, he couldn't exactly claim that as his place of origin, and anything more specific would have been lost on anyone here anyways.

"Good, now that we have introduced ourselves, how about the four of us form a team? If anyone knows how to do that, that is", wolf girl questioned, though it did not look like she was expecting any rebuttals.

The other two quickly agreed to it, and Yonsa followed suit, so as to not create any tensions between them already. With the situation already unfolding, he would just have to change and adapt to it. With this team, he simply had to not antagonize rich girl, and then her parents would likely focus more on the two faunus on her team than him.

"By the way, to form a team, I just think we need both pairs to pick the same idol from the ruins over there", Yonsa added with a gesture towards where they had come from, resigned to this pairing definitely happening. At least he wouldn't be the shortest of the group.

"Alright, then let's go get this mission finished already", wolf girl said and lead the way.

And that was how team LPYS was founded.

* * *

So, that was the introduction to how team LPYS(Lapis) was formed from the POV of one of its members.

If you want to know more, feel free to make a review, and I will get back to you. Unlike some of my previous work, I don't plan on having many secrets about the characters that the readers cannot know until a big Aha! moment, so you can ask me about them as well(though I will detail everyone's Semblances more in the near future's chapters, so much of it will probably be filled out there, but feel free to hit me up for further clarifications).

Also different from my previous works is that I don't plan on having a upload schedule, as this work is mostly a way for me to toy around with these characters and explore them. As such, I currently only have plans for how the introduction period will occur(that will take a while) and what happens to the characters after they graduate. Everything in between those two can be added later on in a non-chronological order on an idea-by-idea basis.

P.S. I originally envisioned Lafiel to have red wolf ears too, but then I found the rule that Faunus could only have 1 animal trait.


	2. Guns & Buns

Alright, second chapter. The team has formed and is working out the kinks. Enjoy.

* * *

 **Guns & Buns**

 **Lafiel Lamprose**  
Yonsa lunged forward with his spear aimed directly at Seishin. Seishin, in turn, directed his massive warhammer towards the much smaller target, but Yonsa had expected the hit and simultaneously ducked under it and deflected it slightly off to the side with the shaft of his spear, before following through and striking Seishin in the chest.

Before Seishin had a chance to grab his opponent, Yonsa had already used him to jump back out of reach of Seishin's warhammer. Seishin roared in rage with a "come back and fight!", and immediately started charging after Yonsa again. Yonsa however, knew to keep out of reach and promptly fled from the charging bear.

"It is starting to get a bit dull", Pandora said from beside Lafiel's seated position on some comfortable outdoor chairs with a parasol above them and a basket of buns between them.

"Yeah", Lafiel agreed as she absentmindedly picked at her bun, "especially since neither of them ever do anything new."

"I get why Yonsa isn't changing style", Pandora commented, "his hit and run tactic has been working so far, and Seishin has only gotten angrier and more predictable every time he does it. Still, it is taking a while to finish the fight like this. Death of a thousand cuts."

"So, how would you fight him?" Lafiel wondered, "I just hammered him with bullets until he was forced to get close, at which point, I had practically already won."

"Either wait for him to attack or run him down. Then grab his spear and end it then and there", Pandora answered with a shrug, "I am honestly not that impressed with his skills so far. He fights defensively almost all the time, and when he does attack, he almost always aims for the chest. It makes him predictable. Plus, without any ranged weapons, he has to go into melee to deliver damage."

Though Seishin had immense trouble catching Yonsa, Lafiel did not question Pandora's statement that she could, especially not after seeing her dispatch Seishin with as much ease as she had during their fight. The huntress may not have used any standard weapons, but she was an extremely agile martial artist, and just before her hits connected, she would activate her Semblance to maximize damage.

Pandora's Semblance was Fire Manipulation, which meant that she could make a concentrated blue flame shoot out roughly 15 cm from her palms and feet. Pandora used it as a cutting torch, and from what she said, it could cut through metal plates if she kept it there for long enough. As it was however, she only deployed it for a very short while to deal damage to auras.

"What about Seishin?", Lafiel asked, "any ideas for him?"

"Either just give him a ranged weapon to force Yonsa into close combat or have him control his anger a bit more", Pandora mused as she took a bun from the basket.

It was around this time that the signal indicating Seishin had gone down into the red rung. Lafiel took a cursory glance at her scroll, noticing that Yonsa's aura had barely dropped below 90%. Strange, considering she didn't recall him having ever actually taken a hit from Seishin during the entire fight.

Yonsa jogged over to them with Seishin still fuming behind him. He was dripping with sweat, which was not surprising considering he had practically run what would have amounted to halfway around Vale's outer walls. Still, he seemed to still be in a fairly good condition.

 _At least he has endurance_ , Lafiel mused as he reached for a bun in the basket.

"Hands off", Pandora snapped and slapped his hand away, "the rest of us don't want your sweaty fingers marring the rest of our food. Go wash up or something."

Yonsa sent her a dirty look with an "as you wish, Princess", before grabbing a napkin and using it to reach for a bun again. This time, Pandora allowed it, though she still narrowed her blue eyes in annoyance at being called princess. Yonsa then took a deep slug from his water container and sat down on the ground.

Seishin, obviously wishing to avoid the same lecture, also grabbed a napkin to take a bun with and plopped himself down on the ground beside Yonsa. Lafiel got why Seishin avoided the empty chairs, as he was too wide for anything that wasn't a bench or specially designed for him, but she did not know why Yonsa had done so.

"Their clothes are going to get dirty from sitting there", Pandora whispered to Lafiel. It seemed she wanted to avoid being called princess again.

Lafiel didn't know what to say. On the one hand, she couldn't see the problem in getting it a little dirty every once in a while, but on the other hand, she knew from Yonsa that Pandora belonged to Mistral's upper class, which might cause her teammate to look down on her if she disagreed.

Growing up in Menagerie meant that she had never met any humans before coming to Vale, so Lafiel was still unsure of how to properly interact with them. Under no circumstances did she want them to think her weak, especially since it might reflect poorly on her fellow faunus.

Finally, she spotted a middle way that would hopefully satisfy everybody, "his pants match the ground anyway. I doubt anyone will even notice a change."

"Still, they might bring it into the room when we go back", Pandora persisted, "I still don't get why they couldn't just split the rooms in 2-person boys and girls rooms, instead of having to cram 4 people inside those tiny spaces."

"It is to foster team spirit, Princess", Yonsa announced, having evidently heard their conversation, "and don't worry, we'll dust off before we go back."

"Hmpf, why do you keep calling me Princess?", Pandora asked frustrated.

"Because you act like one", Seishin surprisingly answered in his deep voice, "the food is cooked wrong, the rooms are too small, you aren't wearing your clothes properly. This constant nagging is getting really annoying."

Lafiel was surprised that Seishin had answered that. He had been quite calm during the events, but had obviously been annoyed by them regardless.

"Well, the rooms are small, the chicken was overcooked and his tie had been tied like a noose", she bit back, with a gesture to Yonsa at the end.

Lafiel had to admit that it had been quite funny when Yonsa had come out of the bathroom with his tie shaped like a noose and had been about to put it on. Apparently, he had never worn a tie before, and even after she bound it for him, he would not stop fiddling with it and complaining that it felt weird and restrictive.

"We have our own room and get food that isn't raw on a daily basis. That alone sets us above many", Yonsa said irritated.

"How would that set us above anyone?", Pandora asked confused.

Lafiel, Seishin and Yonsa all looked at each other as if they couldn't believe what she had just said.

"What!?", she said in a demanding voice.

"You seriously don't know, do you?", Lafiel asked to make sure.

"No! What is it that you think I should know?", Pandora answered exasperated.

"Not everyone outside the kingdoms get to go to bed with a full stomach every night, or sleep in a bed at all for that matter", Yonsa answered calmly, "same for some inside the kingdoms."

"What? Why not?", Pandora asked seemingly genuinely abhorred.

"Grimm, bandits, the White Fang, bad harvests. Take your pick", Yonsa answered, "the rich rarely cares, but when the food prices rises, it is usually a symptom of villages having been wiped out or the weather destroying parts of a harvest. That means less food to go around and it quickly becomes too expensive for peasants to buy."

Lafiel's cheeks momentarily flamed in shame at the mention of the White Fang. She had originally supported their calls for equality, but after digging a little into their practises, she had found that she could no longer do so. She still wanted equality for Faunus, and for humans to treat them with respect, but she had an entirely different plan on how to achieve it.

"Then what do they do if they are hungry and there is no food?", Pandora asked confused.

"Aside from robbery, drinking something or chewing on stuff is a common way to stave off hunger", Yonsa responded, "water is cheap to fill the stomach with and gum, roots and edible plants make for decent chew toys."

At his mention of roots, everyone awkwardly looked towards where his cloak was draped over a chair. The cloak that all of them knew contained edible roots that he would chew on at times.

"When you are travelling outside the kingdom walls, you sometimes have to take detours that add days to your journey or choose between leaving your backpack or your life behind", Yonsa answered the unspoken questions.

"…I'm sorry", Pandora apologized meekly, "I didn't know."

Yonsa actually looked surprised and confused at her apology, before responding, "…why? You didn't cause any such things to happen?"

"But…I thought…", Pandora said confused, before gathering herself, "then what do you guys want from me!?"

"Just try not to judge everything by the standards that you grew up with", Seishin answered, "when you do and we don't live up to them, it feels like you are judging us."

"…And in return, I suppose that I will try to behave more…civilized", Yonsa added hesitantly, "I'm just as much out of my element as you are, so I suppose it applies to me as well."

"I'll try", Pandora agreed, seemingly ending the standoff, before she jokingly added, "could you start by expanding your wardrobe? You are practically wearing the same thing every time we are not wearing school uniforms."

"Not unless you are buying", Yonsa joked back.

With the situation settled, Lafiel felt that it was time to do what they originally came out here to do. That is, gauge each other's strengths and weaknesses and find ways to help the team improve.

"Alright, with that out of the way, how about we review each other", Lafiel tried to segue to the topic at hand, "let us start with myself."

No one seemed to want to be the first to begin criticising each other after the previous discussion, so Lafiel had to prod them for answers.

"…Your tail kind of…sticks out", Pandora eventually said.

"My tail? Why? What is wrong with it?", Lafiel asked self-consciously as she felt her tail tuck itself away from sight. Her discomfort was only made worse by everyone's attention now being drawn to said tail.

"Nothing. It is quite lovely", Pandora quickly clarified, "…it is just that…it is kind of big, and if I was up against you, I might grab it and use it against you."

"Oh", Lafiel said. She had never thought of grabbing another Faunus' tail to use as a weakness against them.

"I don't see how that would be effective in battle though?", Yonsa mused, "I mean, if I was in a position to grab her tail, then I would much rather just strike her back and get out. Even more so since those claws of hers are going to be coming my way very soon, so I doubt I would have time to stick around for long enough to do anything with it."

Seishin nodded in agreement beside him.

"It was just something that I noticed", Pandora hurried to say, "besides that, there are no serious issues with your form so far. I may have some more insight after I beat you."

"Then let's move on", Lafiel said, choosing to ignore the certainness in Pandora's estimation of how their fight would end, "Pandora, during your fight with Seishin, you only used your Semblance for close-quarter effect. Can you shoot fireballs with it as well?"

"I can, but they take a lot of aura to be effective at any usable range", Pandora answered, "though I don't see why I would need to. I have never faced an opponent that I couldn't take on in close-quarter combat."

"Grimm don't always allow for you to get close", Lafiel commented, "Nevermores send giant feathers after you and don't land to allow you on board."

"So I just won't fight a flying Grimm opponent", Pandora answered matter-of-factly, as if she had a choice in the matter.

"What would you two do if a giant Nevermore appeared?", Lafiel said and turned to the two others with a somewhat worried suspicion.

"Hide", "Bring it down", Yonsa and Seishin said respectively and at the same time, after which Seishin looked annoyed at Yonsa.

The worrying suspicion from earlier just grew into a worrying realization.

"Ok. So currently on our team, we have one person that thinks she can choose her opponents, one person that would hide from Grimm and another that thinks he can somehow bring down a Nevermore with nothing but his bare hands and his warhammer, and then me, who is the only one with ranged weapons that can actually reach a Nevermore", Lafiel summarized, "this situation is going to need some adjustments. Starting with my review of the both of you two."

The two in question looked at her in expectation.

"Seishin, if you had had ranged weapons in your recent fight with Yonsa, you could have forced him closer to you", Lafiel started, "and in case a Nevermore or something else appeared that was out of your range, ranged weapons would help close the gap. With your warhammer as it is, it should be possible to transform the handle to a minigun and have the ammo stored in the shaft and head without major alterations to the exterior. That way, it shouldn't affect how you normally wield it in close combat, and you get an additional feature for it."

"Hmm, I suppose Krunch could use an upgrade like that", Seishin concurred, "and it would help me in forcing people closer to me."

"Yonsa, if you are going to continue to fight that defensively, then you seriously need some ranged damage dealers", Lafiel continued, "in my fight with you and in your fight with Seishin, it was clear that you would have been toast with any ranged weapon from the opposition. You are good at tiring out opponents and waiting for chances to attack while keeping your distance, but you don't have anything that stops an opponent from forcing you into close combat with ranged attack. Frankly, I am kind of surprised that you never thought to buy a ranged weapon if you travelled much outside the kingdom walls."

"I did think of it", Yonsa defended, "but dust rounds and the weapons that use them are fairly expensive outside the walls. It is cheaper to run and hide. Not to mention that it doesn't attract more Grimm to the noise."

Somehow, it made way too much sense for him to say that.

"And a shield?", Lafiel tried anyways, despite practically already guessing the answer.

"Good metal is expensive and cumbersome", he answered in accordance with her expectations.

 _He is dirt poor_ , Lafiel realized, which she really should have considered earlier on.

He had entered Beacon with a weapon that had not had any modifications or improvements from those from hundreds of years ago, only two sets of clothes and practically nothing but survival supplies in his backpack.

"I am almost afraid to ask, but what did you do before joining Beacon?", Lafiel asked with a certain trepidation at the answer she might receive, "you have mentioned travelling between towns a lot."

"I was a courier. Have been so for around five years now", Yonsa answered without any shame, "I mostly ferried letters and small packages from town to town, though I would occasionally join up with trade caravans if I got a large package that I couldn't safely carry all the way on my own."

"Wait, five years? You are what, 18?", Pandora exclaimed.

"17, actually", Yonsa corrected.

"So what, you have been travelling in Grimm-infested areas since you were 12? How did your parents allow this?", Pandora continued.

"They are dead", Yonsa answered matter-of-factly, "died in a Grimm attack when I was 8. The other villagers took care of me until I was deemed old enough to work on my own. After that, there weren't many career paths left for someone with no formal education and no resources. And I was not going to go to Mistral and beg for charity."

"So…if you worked as a courier for five years, why did you decide to become a Huntsman, and why Beacon instead of Haven?", Lafiel asked, already dreading the answers.

"Being a courier is practically as dangerous as being a Huntsman, but it pays significantly less. It isn't unusual for the couriers of Anima that survive to adulthood to apply for the Academies", Yonsa replied with a shrug, "As for the second question, Beacon has free room and board. Haven does not."

An awkward pause followed his revelation. While Menagerie was not well off compared to the other kingdoms, Lafiel had never been forced to traverse the Grimm-riddled desert just to scrape by a living. She had traversed the desert a few times, but for entirely different reasons.

Apparently sensing that no one was willing to break the sombre mood, Yonsa decided to break it himself, "look, you don't have to worry about my financial situation. I saved up enough Lien to account for one or two years' worth of unexpected expenses before coming here. Aside from that, I just have to take a few Huntsman or courier jobs in our vacations to cover new expenses. As I said, I chose Beacon because it would cover my two largest expenses."

"They cover dust rounds as well", Seishin finally commented, "not anything fancy like element rounds or pure dust capsules, but they are willing to cover basic dust round expenses accrued for training purposes."

 _I didn't know that. It would save me from having to write home for a bigger allowance_ , Lafiel mused at the news.

"Oh, well then I suppose there shouldn't be any issues in getting something ranged", Yonsa answered, "however, since I have never fired a weapon before nor have any experience with this sort of thing, what would you guys suggest I should get?"

Lafiel recognized that he was trying to bring them back to a constructive discussion instead of the depressing personal stuff. It seemed the others also picked up on this, as both mostly stopped staring at him with pity and instead stared in examination.

"Most Huntsmen have their ranged and melee weapons combined into one, but I don't see how we could do that with you without massively altering your current weapon", Pandora mused, "how attached are you to it as it currently is?"

"I would break it apart on the spot if I had the tools and materials needed to upgrade it", Yonsa replied with a shrug, before adding, "though I would prefer to keep the red sash if possible."

"Okay, then since it is generally not advisable to radically alter someone's weapon style after having used it for this long, how about turning it into a combined sniper rifle and spear?", Pandora continued, "that should complement your defensive style and give the team long-ranged support if necessary. However, we would need to completely replace the current shaft with a slightly wider one, as well as find somewhere to store the ammo and give it a scope of some kind. Perhaps increase the size of the head and make it hollow?"

"Can't I just keep the rounds on me and load them one at a time?", Yonsa questioned, "isn't that how snipers usually work?"

"Bolt-action rifles do, but that would significantly decrease your rounds per minute, and I don't know if you could take advantage of the slight increase in accuracy. Perhaps you could, given enough time and practise, but certainly not anytime soon", Pandora answered, "then again, it would make modifying and maintaining your weapon easier. By the way, where would you store them?"

"In my cloak?", Yonsa answered unsure, "it has some deep pockets that can carry a bit without risking them falling out."

Lafiel and the others looked at the cloak in question. It was a darker shade of brown, which would be fairly good camouflage at night, in muddy terrain or when hiding in foliage. That, combined with his general style, gave Lafiel an idea of what he could do.

"How about we turn you into our scout?", Lafiel questioned.

"A scout? What would we need a scout for when battling other teams?", Pandora questioned confused.

"For when we eventually go out on training missions", Lafiel answered equally confused at the surprise Pandora was showing, "wait, did you think we would just learn everything in the school?"

"Of course not", Pandora denied, "I just…assumed that we would be limited to secured areas like the forest. In any case, I agree that a scouting position would suit you well. From what I saw of your backside during initiation, you are proficient at moving silently and quickly through foliage, not to mention that you were able to outrun me when we heard Lafiel's shots. Add that to your endurance during your fight with Seishin, and all we really need to know is if you are any good at spotting Grimm and other dangers, though given your background, I assume that you are."

"You would be correct, if I were to say so myself", Yonsa agreed, before quietly adding, "and sorry about that."

It appeared that the formation of their teams had not been as random as Lafiel had previously thought. On the one hand, it made her sort of proud to know that she had been chosen as a partner, instead of just randomly bumped into, but on the other hand, she couldn't help but feel that it may have caused lingering tensions between two of her teammates. For now however, both appeared to pretend that nothing was wrong.

"Alright then, with everything cleared up, how about we start designing some weapons!", She said to move the group on a constructive path.

 _I'll need to figure out a way to more permanently reconcile those two sooner or later._

* * *

In case you are wondering why Yonsa is so antagonizing to Pandora, when the previous chapter had him conclude that he had to play nice, well, let us just say that he is not afraid of her, as much as he is afraid of her parents, and something happened before this chapter that put that fear to ease.


	3. Improvements

Hi. Long time no see? Yeah, I meant to release this last Wednesday...

* * *

 **Improvements**

 **Pandora Azura  
** "And the victory goes to Ms. Azura", Ms. Goodwitch announced.

Pandora looked down at her defeated opponent, before offering a hand to help her up. This one had not offered much resistance either. Her long green dress had been preventing her from having the mobility that would have at least made her less prone to being caught in close melee, where her katana was all but useless. Plus, if she had wanted to fight dirty, Pandora could have used the dress to pull her off of her feet.

None of her challengers had been able to beat her. Lafiel from her own team had provided some good resistance, but as soon as Pandora got close enough, her Fuchskrallen had been useless and the knockout inevitable.

She took some pride in knowing that with the majority of her old class at Mistral's most prestigious combat school going to Haven, she would now remain unbeaten by two of the four Huntsmen Academies' first year students. New challengers were why she had applied to Beacon instead of Haven after all.

The challenger that had lasted the longest against her had actually been Yonsa, though that was only because he had run from her the entire battle and had tried to wear her down with his newly forged sniper rifle. Seishin's growls and some boos at the tactic had been audible even from down here.

That had not however been all that effective, as her aura levels had always been considered amongst the prodigy levels, and his limited ammo and still sporadic aiming had severely limited how much damage she had actually had to shrug off.

Eventually, she managed to corner him and from there, the fight was over relatively quickly. Though she had managed to win the fight, she also knew that if it had not taken place indoors, or if the area had not been restricted, then Yonsa would likely have been able to outrun her. His fight with Seishin had shown that.

"Considering the skill Ms. Azura has shown so far, I believe it would be a good practice to have her battle a team next", Ms. Goodwitch said, "anyone willing to take up the challenge?"

A few of the teams mumbled amongst themselves, before some of them raised their hands. Pandora noticed that her own teammates had been in varying degrees of boredom before the new challenge made them perk up.

"Let us go with Team…APLE", Ms. Goodwitch decided and pointed to the chosen team.

A team consisting of three men and a woman descended from the rows. The woman had a machinegun-like weapon on her shoulder, while the men were equipped with a sword and a handheld gun, a sword and a shield, and the last had two swords.

From watching their earlier fights, Pandora knew that none of them were as heavy and slow as Seishin nor as fast and agile as herself.

 _I will have to separate them and take them out one by one_ , Pandora strategized, _the girl doesn't appear to have much skill in melee, but they will likely expect that and shield her, so going for the sword and handgun guy first should throw them off. Besides, I just have to get close enough to render his weapons ineffective to get him._

"Ready, set, begin!", Ms. Goodwitch announced, and the battle began.

Immediately upon starting, the team split into two groups, with the two swords guy and girl in one, and the two other guys in the other. The two groups immediately began to move away from each other in semicircles around Pandora, while simultaneously laying down gunfire on her.

 _I will have to use one group as a shield from the others_ , Pandora mused as she sprinted towards the guy group, while simultaneously dodging as much of the incoming gunfire as possible and shrugging the rest off with her aura.

Before they could manage to deliver any meaningful damage, she had come in range of the two guys, who proceeded to split up and move perpendicular to where their teammates were located. The action meant that if she tried to attack one, the other would always be able to strike at her back, and the two others were constantly able to rain down more fire on her, which forced her to keep in constant motion.

Pandora quickly lounged for the sword and handgun guy and tried to manoeuvre around him to stop the other group's fire. Despite his attempts at heavily backtracking towards the other group, she was successful in positioning herself between him and them.

A shot from behind alerted her that the sword and shield guy had actually had a gun hidden on the inside of his shield. Annoyed at her own oversight, she quickly threw back a fireball that made him jump aside to avoid it, before she pushed extra hard at the opponent in front of her.

The other group had unfortunately relocated before she was able to dispatch him, which was in part due to him heavily retreating from her all the time. With her aura levels now below 70%, she decided to switch her target to the girl and try to stop the constant interfering.

A feinted lunge was enough to get away from her current opponent and halfway towards the other group before anyone picked up on it. The guy with two swords moved to intercept her and the others kept firing at her.

She engaged him and tried to force her way around him to take out the girl. His attacks were however not that easy to ignore, and she was unable to use her arms and aura to deflect as much damage away from her as she had wanted, necessitating the far more taxing act of actually letting her aura block the attacks.

His attacks, combined with the gunfire from the other two still raining down upon her, ensured that when she finally fought her way around him, the girl had already relocated behind the sword and shield guy and was ready to fire upon her from there.

The sword and handgun guy had also relocated to support the dual swords guy from behind her, which forced her to retreat for the first time in this match. When she was out of their swords' reach, she noticed that aside from the girl and handgun guy switching places, the position of everyone was the same as at the start of their match. The only real difference was that handgun guy and dual swords guy had taken some damage, while she was now down to 40%.

Growling in annoyance, she decided that she would have to do something drastic to end this fight quickly.

She sprinted after the girl's group, and when the sword and shield guy opened himself up to shoot at her, she threw another fireball at him and simultaneously watched her aura go down to 30%. Surprised at her attack, he did not have time to bring his shield down to block and the fireball went straight in and threw him off his feet.

Supporting gunfire from behind her tried to force her from not following up, but she ignored it and threw herself over her downed opponent, where she immediately used one hand to hold down his sword hand and the other to apply continuous enhanced fire damage to his chest plate.

Just as he went into the red, she saw an axe head coming down from behind her, but she managed to release his sword hand in time to use that hand to stop the axe from connecting by grabbing around its edge and stopping it in mid-air.

It had been the girl's machinegun that had had an extendable axe head coming out next to the gun barrel. In the moment that their eyes connected, Pandora saw fear in the girl's eyes, and just as she was about to move her other hand around to give the girl the same fate as her teammate, the buzzer sounded.

Initially confused at the match being over, Pandora only then noticed that her own aura had dipped into the red. It had been the girl's last attack that had knocked her out.

Steaming with fury at losing to opponents that she could easily beat individually any day of the week, Pandora yanked the axe-gun out of the frightened girl's hands moments before she realized how undignified it had been.

Now filled with a mixture of shame and fury, she sheepishly handed it back to the even more frightened girl, before she retreated to her spot with her team with as much dignity as she had left, which was not much.

The other students gave her wary looks, but did not dare to say anything. This only made her feel even more self-conscious about her earlier behaviour. She plopped down between Lafiel and Seishin and tried to act naturally, though it only came out as a stiff unmoveable posture.

"It's alright. They were four against one", Lafiel tried to comfort her with accompanying backrubs.

Great, now she had to be cheered up as well. Why couldn't she have just recognized sooner that she would have had to take down the girl's group with surprise attacks? Had she done the same thing at the beginning of the match, she was confident that she would have been able to take out two opponents before her aura even dipped below 80%. After that, the other two would have proven a challenge yes, but not an insurmountable one.

"As you have just witnessed, a well-coordinated team is able to take on challenges that none of the members could have on their own", Ms. Goodwitch told the class, "it is therefore imperative that each of you work to improve your teamwork."

The rest of the class went by with other fighters battling it out and Ms. Goodwitch giving critique to each of them. Pandora tried to pay attention, but she constantly felt everyone's eyes on her, which caused her to sit in the stiff uncomfortable posture for the rest of the class.

After the bell rang, Pandora left the classroom as quickly as she could without seeming like she was running. Instead of heading to lunch, like the rest of the students, she headed back to their dorm room, ignoring any and all attempts at communication on the way.

She was being childish, and she knew that she was so, but knowing that didn't make the shame and anger at herself go away or tone down. In fact, if anything, it made her even more ashamed and angry at herself for acting so.

When she reached their room, she plopped herself down on her bed and buried her face in her pillow. Lafiel had not entered the room with her, despite Pandora knowing that the Faunus girl had followed her back to the room at a distance.

After a while with nothing happening, a soft knock could be heard on the door, followed by Lafiel softly asking if she could come in. Pandora retorted that it was her room too, so she did not need to ask permission, which she immediately regretted afterwards.

Lafiel entered the room and sat in the middle of her bed next to Pandora's, while Seishin also entered it shortly after and sat at the footboard of his bed, which was directly opposite from Pandora's bed.

After receiving the room, they had quickly changed the bed locations so that instead of everyone being in parallel with the headboards towards the wall with the window, the beds now had the headboards against each opposing wall and the footboards towards each other and the beam of light that entered from the window.

It had been the fairest way to avoid two of them having to wake up early every morning by the sun shining through the window. That and it afforded some degree of privacy.

The boys had the right side of the room with Yonsa sleeping in the corner next to the window, while the girls had the left side with Lafiel sleeping in the corner next to the window. That also easily divided up the closets and desks between them.

"I don't want to be consoled. I don't need to", Pandora pre-empted any such attempts. If only everyone could just leave her alone for a few short moments and forget what had happened.

"I wasn't trying to", Lafiel denied, "but we are a team, so if one of us is feeling down, we try to help each other."

Seishin grunted concurringly from the opposite bed. The lack of any additional noise made Pandora slightly raise her head from her pillow and scan the room. Yonsa wasn't there. So much for team spirit, though she was not sure if she should actually be surprised with him.

Lafiel obviously noted what she had as well and asked Seishin if Yonsa had mentioned where he was going. Seishin answered that he had not even noticed him leaving their group after class.

"I'm sure he is just taking a bathroom break", Lafiel nervously said to Pandora, "besides, it isn't really important anyway. What is important is that I, Seishin and Yonsa, _when I get my hands on him_ , are willing to try and help you become stronger."

Training and strategizing. She could deal with those topics.

"I have to say that I am impressed with how much damage you were able to shrug off with just your aura", Lafiel continued, "you must have a lot of aura."

Seishin nodded in agreement from his bed.

"I was considered a prodigy in both aura level and fighting talent at my old combat school", Pandora answered, "it is why I don't want to rely on weapons or armour to shield me. Just my own strength and skill."

"But you wear armour? Light as it is though", Seishin questioned confused.

"My father had it made for me when I first started out", Pandora answered, looking down on the amour that she had still yet to change out of, "it was a condition for allowing me to enter combat school."

"It is cool that he wants to protect you like that", Lafiel commented, "I just wear my training clothes because all the armour pieces we had around were too cumbersome for me to move and breathe in."

Pandora was not sure what to answer that with. Ever since her fight with Yonsa, she had become nervous about how to deal with…less fortunate people when subjects that involved disparity in resources came up. Luckily, she was saved from having to comment by a light knocking on the door.

"Come in", Lafiel immediately said, and Pandora could swear that there was hope in the girl's red eyes. Pandora would not like to be Yonsa if it turned out to be some random person that had knocked.

"Is the Princess still sulking?", Yonsa asked somewhat muffled from outside the door.

"Get in!", Lafiel ordered.

The door handle was slowed pushed down, and Yonsa soon after entered the room with one hand holding a half-eaten chicken wing and the other balancing a platter filled with a roasted chicken, minus one wing, and assorted foodstuff haphazardly spread out around the chicken.

"You brought us food!", Lafiel clapped happily.

"It is lunch break and we have individual combat training afterwards", Yonsa answered matter-of-factly, "why wouldn't you eat when we have the chance?"

Lafiel looked like she was debating with herself whether his nonchalance towards the perceived situation outweighed the fact that he had brought food to the entire team.

"Thank you nonetheless", Pandora said to signal that she didn't consider his actions badly.

He nodded at her and placed the platter on one of the desks, before he reached for a napkin and used it to extract a few other foodstuffs and went to eat on his bed. Pandora followed his example, though she sat at their desk and ate to avoid getting food stains on her bed.

The others soon joined them and the mood improved considerably for a while. That is, until people stopped eating and focus was shifted back to her again.

"Stop staring! I am telling you that I am fine!", she said to break the awkward silence.

"How about we instead focus on what would happen if each of us was caught in a similar position?", Lafiel suggested, "let us start with Seishin."

"I would try to crush them with Krunch, and if they tried to swarm me, I would use my Roar of the Wild Semblance to throw them back and hopefully break morale", Seishin answered, "though I am not confident that I could destroy them all, especially not if they kept running from me and I ran out of bullets."

"Alright, any ideas on how to improve upon that?", Lafiel asked the room.

"Aside from giving him more bullets, I don't see how he could improve upon that without significantly changing his style", Pandora answered.

"Alright, my turn next. I would try the same tactic that you did, but my guns would make it easier to provide covering fire", Lafiel said, and when no one made objections, she turned to Pandora.

"I might be able to win if I started out the way I ended it", Pandora mused.

"I don't know if that would be as effective now", Lafiel countered, "a lot of it had to do with you never having shown that usage of your Semblance, so they were unsure of what to do. If you redid the match now, I think that they might be prepared for something like that coming up."

"Then I have nothing", Pandora conceded, "not unless I radically alter my combat style."

"How about you guys? Have any ideas?", Lafiel asked the boys.

"Get better, so that you can take one out within moments of engaging them?", Seishin suggested without confidence.

"Seishin!", Lafiel exclaimed, "we are supposed to be finding solutions!"

"Wait, he might not be wrong", Pandora interjected, "we have been looking to quick-fixes to the situation, but what if the long term fixes are the ones we should focus on?"

It sounded good to Pandora. If she could just improve herself enough, she would be able to simply take out the others without having to rely on cheesy strategies that only worked in a select few situations. Besides, the idea of performing better appealed to her on a basic level.

Lafiel was just about to answer when Yonsa started heading for the door. It was neither a quick sprint nor an attempt at being subtle about it. If Pandora had to guess, he simply didn't care that he was leaving in the middle of their team meeting.

"Where do you think that you are going?", Lafiel questioned him sternly.

"Combat training", he answered with a shrug and a motion towards the clock.

Pandora looked down and noticed that it was almost 13, meaning that they had to start getting ready for combat training. However, since it was individual combat training with little supervision, no one would question them if they were late.

"You can't just leave a team meeting without contributing", Lafiel admonished.

"I brought food", Yonsa pointed out.

"But you didn't participate in the discussion", Lafiel countered.

"Because I don't have any ideas to allow the Princess to win such a fight", Yonsa argued with clear indifference, making Lafiel's tail twitch slightly for a moment.

"And what if you were in such a situation?", Lafiel pressed on.

"I wouldn't be", Yonsa denied. From having known him for a while, Pandora knew this to mean that he would never seek out nor stay in such a fight if it was at all possible to avoid it.

"But if you were", Lafiel said more sternly.

"I don't know. If it was in a situation similar to Pandora's, I would likely get wiped in a short while", Yonsa said somewhat irritated, "now, if you would excuse me, I would like to go work on the strategy that was just agreed on for her."

"Wait! You said 'if I was in a similar situation', so what if you weren't? What if you could slightly alter the scenario, but keep the opponents?", Lafiel questioned inquisitively, having apparently picked up on something that Pandora had not.

"…If I say a strategy, can I then please go?", Yonsa asked somewhat strained at the constant barrage of questions.

"Yes, but only if it is decently thought out", Lafiel immediately accepted.

"Fine", Yonsa agreed, before thinking for a bit, "as I see it, the biggest problem is the locale. The training room is basically an open plain with no cover and less opportunity to shake your opponents or hide from them. If I were to change a thing, I would make it a forest setting, and I would start by hiding from them as quickly as possible. After that, I would either try to snipe them one at a time, starting with gun girl"

"Her name is Lucia", Lafiel interrupted weakly.

"-or ambush any stragglers wandering around and then retreat back into the forest", he continued as if uninterrupted, "since they are a group, their ability to move and remain hidden is significantly lowered compared to if they are on their own, and if they are on their own, you negate their group advantage."

"So basically; run, hide and try to take them out in a way that negates their group advantage", Pandora summarized, "isn't that what you always try to do?"

"Yes, hence why if you wanted a strategy focusing on something different, you should have asked someone else. A teacher for example", Yonsa said irritated, "now, since I have done my part, I bid you farewell."

And with that, he grabbed his cloak and exited the room.

Pandora looked to Lafiel and suggested that the rest of them also really should get going now, but that she had to ask her about something private before they left. Seishin quickly picked up on the hint and left the room for his own training.

"So, he was lying about not having any ideas?", Pandora half asked half stated.

"How did you know!?", Lafiel asked surprised.

"Your tail twitch a little when you pick up on a lie", Pandora answered slightly guilty at having picked up on such a personal habit of a Faunus. She was still not sure of how comfortable they were when you noticed their animal characteristics.

"Well, that makes it much easier to suggest going to see him again", Lafiel commented, though Pandora noted that she did look slightly ashamed.

"But do you know where he went?", Pandora asked.

"He said he was going training, and he took his cloak with him, so he is target practising", Lafiel said with a shrug, "come on, let's get changed into some training clothes. If anyone asks, you are teaching me martial arts."

After quickly changing, they headed out to search through Beacon's shooting range for any signs of him. There were quite a few people at the shooting ranges, which themselves were divided into several sections, so it took a little while before they finally spotted his brown cloak covering a figure lying on the ground with the butt end of a spear sticking out.

Pandora had been the primary architect behind the design. The barrel ended at the spear's bottom, which had a small cork that prevented dirt from entering it when it was not in use. The spearhead was near impossible to transform into an effective stock without impairing the spear's functionality, so she had instead given parts of the handle near the spearhead the ability to flip up and make a temporary stock.

This same concept had been used to make the trigger and the bipods that supported the barrel. Pandora had originally despaired of how to fit the scope on it without it being in the way when used as a spear, but then Lafiel had had the idea to hide the scope in the same loading chamber that bullets were put in and casings extracted from. That way, all you had to do was open the sliding mechanism to roll the scope into or out of the shaft.

Lafiel went right up to him and patted him on the shoulder, making him miss the shot by a wide margin.

"What is it? I don't have time to play", Yonsa said far too normally for this to be the first time this had happened.

He then looked back at them, only to stare confused at Pandora for a second before staring back at Lafiel, clearly expecting an answer.

"You lied to us", Lafiel accused him with a pout.

Yonsa looked even more confused, before he finally asked what they were talking about.

"When you denied having ideas to make me win the fight", Pandora clarified.

"I can usually tell when people lie to me", Lafiel expanded.

That statement made Yonsa far paler than he should have had a right to be. It was sort of odd seeing him without a healthy tan covering his face.

As quickly as it had come, it was gone, and Yonsa began explaining, "I didn't lie per se. The discussion was about how she could fight the battle on her own. At the time and even now, I still stand by my statement that I don't know how to make her win without being helped by others in the fight. By the way, is lie detection your Semblance?"

"No, my Semblance is to make plants grow faster", Lafiel explained, "I'm just good at picking up on the lies spoken aloud, which is also why I believe that you are not lying now, so that must mean that you have ideas as to how she could win with help. Spill."

"Sure, not that it would help in the situation discussed anyway", Yonsa conceded, "during the fight, she was only one person against four, which meant that they could run in four separate directions, and she would ever only be able to follow one of them. Aside from somehow getting a speed buff, the only way I see her winning is by giving her a partner that can hold down two or so of the opponents, while she takes care of the other two. Seishin should be more than adequate for the role, especially since he is supposed to be her partner anyways."

"That makes sense. Rudimentary, but true nonetheless", Pandora agreed, "and it also makes sense that if you were thinking of ideas like this, then you could lie when asked about ideas without meaning harm by it, since they were not ideas that fell under the topic in discussion."

"Yes, so you should make sure to consider how or why a person could be lying, before you jump to conclusions", Yonsa said aimed at Lafiel, who blushed at the admonishment, "now, if you would allow me to go back to my training, it would be much appreciated. I am not exactly getting better at this by just standing around here."

"Of course, we shall leave you to your devices right away", Pandora answered, recognizing both the signal for them to leave and the desire to improve oneself. The latter was something that she held in great regard herself.

Lafiel said her goodbyes too, before they left the shooting range. When they were safely out of earshot, Pandora looked to Lafiel and with a raised eyebrow said, "So…play?"

* * *

So, troubles aplenty in paradise.


	4. Divisions

So, this will be quite a bit shorter than usual. It's hard to write from Seishin's POV since I consider him the most well adjusted of all of them.

* * *

 **Divisions**

 **Seishin Kuma  
** "I don't like him", Seishin exclaimed, "he is shifty, keeps to himself and I don't believe for an instant that he cares about us."

"Keeping to yourself is not a crime", Lafiel defended without much zeal, "if it were, some might consider you guilty of it as well."

"I was there when Pandora needed to be cheered up", Seishin countered, "I may not have said much, but I was supportive nonetheless. _He_ couldn't have cared less about the entire thing if he had tried."

"He brought us food, when he could have just as easily stayed in the cafeteria and ate by himself", Lafiel offered up another weak excuse.

"Why do you keep defending him?", Seishin said angrily and punched a wall in frustration.

Lafiel looked towards the door of their room with worry that someone might have heard the commotion. While they waited, Seishin calmed himself down. It would not do to become too enraged. Who knows when he would manage to calm down again?

When none entered for a while, Lafiel breathed a sigh of relief and looked reproachfully at Seishin, her tail swishing in agitation, "if you cannot control yourself, then I will not have this discussion with you."

"I'm calm now, but you still owe me an answer", Seishin answered, "why keep defending him?"

"He is my partner", Lafiel stated simply, as if that explained everything, before belatedly adding, "and your teammate."

"Is he though?", Seishin pressed, "would you honestly trust your back to him? Trust _him_ not to leave you behind the moment things get tough? The guy that constantly tries to run from challengers?"

Lafiel turned her back to him as she answered, "running from a more skilled opponent is occasionally a valid tactic. If you weren't so stationary during our battles, Pandora wouldn't have to pick up as much of your slack as she is currently doing."

Seishin huffed in triumph. She hadn't been able to say that she trusted Yonsa to have her back.

"It isn't just the running though", Seishin continued to press, "he is lying to us. I know he is. Just look at how differently he treats Pandora after she told us that she hadn't told her parents about who her teammates were and how we live at Beacon. Going from submissive to dismissive overnight is not the mark of someone honest about their intentions."

"He rarely lies", Lafiel defended, "I would be able to tell."

"He may not lie, but he is not telling the truth either", Seishin accused, "don't tell me that you don't know that."

"Of course I know that!", Lafiel snapped and turned to face him, "do you think that I don't already know all that you have told me? That _I_ was too blind to see something so simple?"

"Then why do you keep defending him?", Seishin asked again.

"I already told you. He is my partner, and our teammate", Lafiel said annoyed.

"Which is why I am trying to convince you that we should remove him from the team!", Seishin reiterated a previous point, "if you and I band together, we will easily be able to convince Pandora that the team would be better without him."

"And then what?", Lafiel rhetorically asked, "we go to the Headmaster and ask him to boot one of our teammates just like that? On what grounds? That we don't like him? Think for a moment about how this will look to others if we try to boot a teammate that performs all of his outwardly obligations to his team and his studies. One word from Pandora, and it would look like two Faunus bullying her into agreeing to gang up on the team's weakest member."

Seishin was stunned into silence. He hadn't considered that angle, and he suddenly had far more respect for Lafiel.

"Well, what about just trading partners then? He could get Pandora, and we would be partners", Seishin eventually proposed, "it would make everyone happier if they were with their own race."

"I will not let people whisper that I could not handle my own partner", Lafiel stated with finality, "he isn't discriminatory, which is something that cannot be said for everyone at this school. He just isn't invested in the team, yet. Once I get him to open up and become an active part of the team, we are going to aim to be the best team at Beacon. Every Huntress and Huntsman will be forced to recognize that a team consisting of cooperating Faunus and humans became the best, and you are going to make sure that Ms. Pandora Azura has a positive impression of Faunus to take home and talk about to her high class fellows in Mistral."

"I want to be a Huntsman, not a political spokesperson for your ideals", Seishin growled.

"You already are a spokesperson for the Faunus race", Lafiel countered, "if you behave badly, humans will associate other Faunus with your behaviour. It is why the White Fang's methods won't work in the long run. They may provide us with some equality now, but at the expense of every Faunus being a suspected White Fang sympathizer. The moment that the White Fang begins to show weakness, all that they have gained will be taken away with brutal interests."

"And how is your plan different? You still want them to respect us out of fear", Seishin wanted to know.

"My plan revolves around uplifting the Faunus race as a whole, not tearing others down to make them respect us", Lafiel said with passion, "Menagerie is already bursting to the seams, but if we can just reclaim the desert, our living space will triple. Vacuo had large deposits of Dust in their desert, so why shouldn't we also have some? By combining the increased arable land and Dust resources, we will be able to modernize Menagerie and turn it into a proper Kingdom. One that is on the same level as the others, and which has its own CCT tower."

"Even if there is Dust, the Schnee Dust Company will just move in and strip mine the place like they did Vacuo", Seishin said with a shrug, "and if there isn't anything, then what?"

"They won't be able to with their reputation. Not in Menagerie", Lafiel said with confidence, "and even if there isn't any, then we will still triple our land mass. More Faunus can live there, and that means that we can create our own market and expand from there. Vale doesn't have many Dust deposits and Atlas is a frozen wasteland, but they are both modernized Kingdoms that the others respect."

"Even if I accept that your plan is feasible, you would still need to either be the Chieftain of Menagerie or have a Chieftain that agrees with you to enact half of the changes that you want", Seishin noted.

"If it is required, then I will become that", Lafiel said with conviction, "If I can just reclaim the desert, then I am sure that the people of Menagerie will be happy to support me as their next Chieftain when Ghira steps down."

Seishin would have told her to check her ambitions a bit, but a noise outside the door alerted him that someone was close. Lafiel spotted this and quickly grabbed something from her desk to look busy, while Seishin plopped down on his bed and appeared as if deep in thought.

Moments later, Pandora entered the room. She was wearing jogging clothes and was all sweaty. She looked back and forth between the two for a bit, as if trying to figure out what was going on.

"How was your run?", Lafiel asked her in a clear attempt at distracting her from trying to figure anything out.

"…Good", Pandora answered hesitantly.

"Isn't Yonsa coming in with you?", Lafiel asked while looking between Pandora and the closed door.

"He wasn't running with me?", Pandora stated confused.

"Oh, then where could he be then?", Lafiel questioned confused.

"I don't know. Aren't you his partner? Shouldn't I ask you that?", Pandora questioned back, "otherwise, try calling his Scroll."

"Right, I will try that", Lafiel concurred and immediately tried calling the Scroll.

A buzzing sound from Yonsa's bed alerted everyone that the owner of said Scroll had forgotten it yet again.

"Hmm, well, while you try finding him, I will take a shower", Pandora said with a shrug and began to grab supplies from their closet, "try the shooting range. He seems to live there nowadays."

"Yeah, I'll go do that", Lafiel agreed and exited the room with a final look at Seishin.

He knew what that look meant. Don't tell anyone about the contents of their conversation. As if he would have any need for such a warning.

With much of the day gone, but still a while before dinner yet, Seishin decided to do maintenance on Krunch for the remainder. It would be good to clear the head and regain the calm that he prized so much.

* * *

So, I know this was kind of short, but the next one will make up for it and then some. That is, if real life doesn't bite me in the ass as much as it has currently. Seriosuly, I get up at 6:30 get home at 18-19(if everyone worked out well) and then have to take care of dinner and other house duties. Doesn't give a lot of time for writing.


	5. The first mission 1 of 4

So, this got a little longer than I had initially expected. With that in mind, I decided to split it up into four roughly equal parts near some natural breaks to ease the reading experience. Enjoy.

* * *

 **The first mission**

 **Lafiel  
** This was finally it. Their first mission was just around the corner and Lafiel could not be more excited about it if she tried. After an entire semester of nothing but Dr. Oobleck's history classes, Prof. Port's "hunting" lessons and Ms. Goodwitch's fighting classes, Lafiel was more than ready to try out what she had learnt in the real world.

Now, if only the headmaster would just hurry up his speech and let them go already. Everyone already knew the basics. Follow your Huntsman's orders, be safe and don't do anything stupid.

An elbow to the side from Pandora made her wince in pain. When Lafiel looked confused at her teammate, she motioned towards her swishing tail and said that she was drawing attention, so she should calm down. Lafiel was slightly ashamed of that, but it was quickly forgotten as the headmaster finally finished his speech and let them find a mission.

"What kind of mission should we get?", Lafiel asked excitedly, "ooh, how about this one? Search and Destroy, Clear out the Grimm in the Forever Fall Forest, mission start in a week? It sounds fun and is just around the corner."

It would be good practise for clearing out the desert back home too.

"Don't the new first years do that every year anyway?", Pandora asked unimpressed, "how about something with a bit more of a challenge? Like this one for example. Search and Destroy, Destroy a Geist in Quadrant 3, mission start: ASAP."

"I don't think first years are allowed missions of that difficulty", Yonsa said and shot that proposal down.

"Then what do you two want?", Lafiel questioned her other two teammates, hoping that their wishes would not contradict each other overly much. She didn't feel up for having her team bicker in full public just before their first mission.

"There is an Escort mission over there. Escort a group of traders from Mirage to Fishton, mission start in two weeks", Yonsa proposed.

That sounded like it could just be weeks of trekking across Sanus with no guarantee that anything might even happen. A glance at Pandora showed that she also didn't like the idea. Before the others could speak, she turned to Seishin and asked what he would like.

"I am fine with whatever you decide. A Huntsman can't be picky about who he chooses to help", Seishin said instead of offering up any suggestions of his own.

 _Hmm, so he wants something that actively helps people_ , Lafiel mused, _so if I find something like that, and which has a bit of a challenge in it, then I am sure to get most to agree on it._

She still wasn't sure what criteria Yonsa picked his mission choice from. He hadn't exactly been forthcoming in disclosing more about himself as a person, despite Lafiel's numerous tries to get him to open up and integrate into the group. All she really knew about his personality was that he had a tendency to avoid danger whenever possible.

With that in mind, she kept searching the listings for possibilities that would suit everyone. There were a host of different missions, some of which appeared promising at first, but which were unavailable to first year students.

Finally, as the students were beginning to thin out, she found one that had to be available to them, and which would hopefully satisfy three out of four of the group.

"Village Security", she read out loud, "destroy a nest of Beowolves near Haulton in Quadrant 5, mission start in two days."

With any luck, she would be able to ask their mentoring Huntsman more about how and why Grimm chose to nest in certain areas over others.

"It doesn't sound like much of a challenge, but if what Prof. Port said is true, then there might be Alphas there too", Pandora mused, "I'm in."

"I also approve of this mission", Seishin said with a nod, before everyone turned to stare at their last member.

 _Please don't be difficult_ , Lafiel pleaded with her eyes.

"That one it is then", Yonsa confirmed with a non-committal shrug.

Lafiel quickly typed in LPYS on the console before anyone had a chance to change their minds or claim it before them. Just as the console said that their team had been accepted, a buzzing in her pocked alerted her that her Scroll had just received a text.

Confused at who would contact her at this time, she noticed that Pandora and Seishin had also reached for their pockets. Evidently, it was a group message to all of them. She quickly took out her Scroll and skimmed through it.

It was basically just a "you have been accepted for this mission" text with some info about meeting up with their mentor tomorrow for evaluation and pre-mission preparation.

Looking up from her Scroll, she could see that Pandora and Seishin also had their Scrolls out, with Seishin looking up from his as well. Pandora seemed like she was fine-reading the text. It would certainly fit with how she studied for their classes.

It was then that she noticed that Yonsa was still standing there without his Scroll visible anywhere. Damn it, would she have to tape the damn thing to him to get him to remember it. It wasn't like he was perpetually forgetting his other things. Just his damn Scroll.

"It's an acceptance text with some info about meeting our mentor tomorrow in the training yard at 14:00", she said to give him a brief overview of what they had received, before continuing with a tired sigh, "and you are coming with me back to the dorm to get your damn Scroll. Save some seats for us in the cantina, you two."

"I can get it on my own", Yonsa objected.

"Yeah and when you stop forgetting it all the time, then you can go get it on your own", Lafiel shot down his objections and started dragging him out of the hall and away from their waving teammates. It was hardly the first time this had happened.

As soon as they exited the hall and everyone's sight, she let go of him and he quickly fell in step besides her.

"We have had our Scrolls for exactly the same amount of time, so how can you keep losing yours?", she questioned him bewildered as they walked towards their dorm room, "I could understand it in the beginning. I did it at first too, but you really should have learned to remember it by now. How do you even fight without its aura indicator?"

"I am good at gauging my aura manually", he answered with a shrug, "and it isn't like I am missing anything important as long as I check it in the morning and evening anyway."

"But we can't get a hold of you when you keep forgetting it", Lafiel protested.

"We are together in most classes anyway, and it is fairly easy to find each other during self-study", Yonsa pointed out, "I am sure that there is nothing important enough that it cannot wait for a short while. Still, I will try to remember it."

"Thank you", Lafiel responded with a nod.

They kept walking down the hallway in silence after that. Had it been Pandora or Seishin, Lafiel would have made some small-talk, though Seishin would probably mostly have just listened, but she had quickly learnt that Yonsa was even worse at small-talk than Seishin.

Any topic that did not relate to talking shop would see him entirely uncommitted to furthering the discussion, which made it rather difficult to keep a conversation going. They had even had times were he had not spoken for days, excluding small phrases like "pass the salt".

Lafiel had a topic that she wanted to discuss, but she preferred to wait until they were in their room and away from prying ears. And so, they kept walking in silence until they reached their room, where the small white Scroll was lying on the bedside table that he had left it on that morning.

Lafiel discreetly closed the door as he made to move towards the Scroll. The small clicking sound instantly had his head spinning towards her. She recognized the tense posture and fleeting look of a cornered animal in his eyes.

"I'm not trying to ambush you or anything", she quickly said, "I just didn't want everyone to hear."

"Okay…", he said, grabbed the Scroll off the table and put it in the pocket of his school uniform.

"…It's just…I was wondering", Lafiel tried to find a good way to phrase her question, "you didn't put up any fight when we chose the mission."

"Why would I?", he asked confused, "it is a fairly standard mission for new Huntsmen."

"Yeah but…", she trailed off. How was she to say that she had expected him to shy away from any missions involving danger without sounding like she was calling him a coward?

"Everyone has preferences", she eventually settled on, "and I don't know if I included yours into it or not."

"My preferences doesn't matter", he said with a shrug, "once we graduate, we will be expected to be able to take on all types of missions, so whether we take one type now or at a later date will be of little consequence. Whatever missions the team leader chooses, I will accept it."

Hmm, now that he said it, Lafiel remembered that he had only objected to those that seemed out of what they were allowed to do as first years. For the rest, he had been silent while Pandora and herself had argued over it.

"But for reference, what type of missions _do_ you prefer?", Lafiel asked after a little while. She might as well try to get to know a little more about her partner.

Yonsa looked at her, and for a moment, she thought he would repeat himself, but then he said, "missions outside the walls", and started heading for the door.

Well, that only narrowed it down to 90% of all mission types. Lafiel didn't think there would be a single other answer that could cover as broad a range as the one he had given. She couldn't even say that it set him apart from the rest of their team, as the missions inside the walls were mostly all boring stuff that should have been handled by the police anyway.

Before she had time to ask anything else, he had opened the door and was on his way out. It was a clear signal to her that he would not answer anymore of her questions. Lafiel quickly followed him out the door, and the rest of the day went as it usually did on their days off.

The following day, Team LPYS arrived at the training yard at 13:50 to wait for their mentor to arrive. All of them were wearing their combat gear and weapons, as the text had informed them that they would be evaluated and do pre-mission preparations.

Since they had arrived before the agreed upon time, it was not surprising that they had to wait for a while before their mentor showed up. Still, better safe than sorry, especially with this being their first mission and meeting with a real Huntress.

Seishin was doing some sort of exercise with his warhammer, which involved holding it stretched out in one hand for a long period of time, before he suddenly made a flip of the wrist and sent it flying in an arc across his head to his other hand. The other hand then deftly caught the warhammer and repeated the process.

Lafiel glanced across her other teammates as they waited. Yonsa stood with his cloak moving slightly in the wind, one hand firmly held on his spear, the tip of which was covered by that red sash that he seemed to value, and the other holding the root that he was gnawing on.

Pandora was doing some sort of stretches, though the way she flowed from one position to the next suggested that it could also be some sort of martial art that Lafiel did not know of. The golden edges of her black armour occasionally caught the light, which combined with her black hair and porcelain skin made her resemble the princess that Yonsa occasionally called her.

"So this is Team LPYS", came a chipper voice from behind them.

Lafiel turned around to see their mentor. The text had only provided her name, Birch Argonfield, so she had not known what to expect. The Huntress was wearing a brown leather trench coat that reached all the way down to her legs and was split in the back and front of the lower section to allow her legs room to move. Her hair was brown like Seishin's and her eyes were grey like Yonsa's.

Outstretched in her left hand, she held a halberd with a giant axe blade on the side, a long spike on the top and a shorter one at the bottom. The weapon was at least as large as Seishin's warhammer, which made it all the more strange when its wielder was only as high as Yonsa.

"Ms. Argonfield", Lafiel greeted politely.

"Call me Birch", the Huntress instructed as she approached them with the halberd moving as if it was a simple walking stick.

When she got close to them, she jabbed the end of the halberd into the ground and let go of it, as she studied them one at a time. No one moved or said anything as she weighed and judged them.

It was kind of awkward just standing there, but Lafiel noted to her relief that it was not only her that stood straighter than usual. Seishin had positioned his warhammer in such a way that his extensive muscles were showing. Yonsa had his spear held in front of him with one hand, the other hidden inside his cloak, and was staring straight ahead as if he was some sort of statue. Pandora had her right hand balled into a fist at her chest and her left hand covering it, and like Yonsa, she stood completely still, though unlike him, her eyes followed the Huntress with iron determination to not blink or break.

Finally, Birch finished her inspection with a smirk, yanked her halberd out of the ground and cheerfully said, "so, you are my charges for this mission. You certainly don't look like the worst that I have had over the years, but whether you are still waits to be seen. Now, don't be so stiff and relax a little. We aren't even out of Beacon yet. Also, start telling me about yourselves, your combat styles, your strengths, your weaknesses and what you usually do in the team. Starting with your leader over here."

Lafiel started talking about herself and her role, with Birch only occasionally nodding and encouraging her to go on. After her, it was Pandora's turn, which again went without much incident, though Birch seemed a little surprised that Pandora only used her aura as a weapon.

When it came to Yonsa, the pattern continued until he mentioned that he was appointed the scout of the team.

"You won't be on this mission", Birch stated with finality.

"But aren't we supposed to test out our team in the real world during these missions?", Lafiel exclaimed before she could stop herself.

"You are, but like with swimming, you don't throw beginners into the deep end right off the bat", Birch said with mirth in her voice, before it turned serious, "so listen closely to what I am about to say. During the extent of this mission, none of you are allowed to move out of my sight without my express permission. Any violations will result in the entire team being sent back to Beacon immediately. Is that understood?"

"Yes, ma'am", they all quickly acquiesced. It wasn't like they had a choice in the matter anyway.

"Good, now that that is over and done with, let's continue with the big guy at the end", Birch continued, now back to her chipper voice again.

Seishin passed without incident, though she did demand to see his weapon's minigun feature displayed and then praised the craftsmanship that went into making it.

With the introductions over and done with, she quickly moved on to target practise for those that had weapons, followed by one-on-one fights between the team members to gauge their melee abilities. The fights started by pitting partner against partner, which led to Yonsa and Seishin yielding, before she pitted Lafiel against Pandora, leading to Lafiel yielding, followed by Yonsa against Seishin.

That fight was much closer than the one that they had had when the team had just formed. This was mostly due to Seishin now being able to force Yonsa close with his minigun.

"Are all of you wearing all of your gear right now?", Birch questioned Lafiel during the fight.

"What? Oh, yeah. Why?", Lafiel answered confused and not wanting to take her eyes off of the fight.

"No particular reason", Birch dismissed the question and returned her attention to the fight.

It ended when Seishin slammed his hammer down with too much force to stop it before it hit the ground, where it then got stuck. This allowed Yonsa to jump on his back and repeatedly jam his spear into Seishin's back.

Seishin unleashed a roar that somehow blew Yonsa off of him and sent a gale towards Lafiel that tugged at her clothes and made her want to run in fear. Seishin then managed to yank his warhammer out of the ground and stomp towards where Yonsa had landed roughly on his back.

Seishin's roar had managed to separate Yonsa from his spear, but before he could get up, Seishin was upon him and he yielded the fight immediately. Out of her eye, Lafiel saw Birch grin in excitement as the fight ended.

With all the time spent doing the shooting practice, fights, waits in between fights to recharge aura, and renewed fights, the sun had begun to set as Seishin helped Yonsa up from the ground. Birch luckily seemed satisfied with what she had seen and told them to meet her at the launch pads early the next morning with bags containing two days' worth of supplies.

Since everyone were pretty tired from being put through the ringer all day, they collectively decided to simply get dinner, pack their bags for the next day and then go straight to bed. The following morning also saw most of them gruntingly get ready. It didn't help that they had to get up at 4:30 if they wanted to get any breakfast in before taking off.

Birch was standing ready at the Bullhead, waving one hand over her head enthusiastically at them. How someone could be so fresh so early in the morning, Lafiel would never know. Seishin slept like a bear in hibernation, and had snored like one too, until they had managed to find a fix for that. Pandora got…cranky if she was woken up before 7, and Yonsa was always eerily silent before the sun rose.

"Morning everyone! Ready for a day of adventure?", she greeted them as they got closer.

Lafiel and Pandora greeted her back before taking their seats in the Bullhead, though Lafiel was slightly surprised that the other girl had not snapped at the cause of her early rise, as she had at Lafiel herself that morning. Still half-asleep, Seishin grunted in greeting and simply moved into his seat. Yonsa nodded in greeting, before getting into his own seat, where he gathered his cloak around him, as if to shield him from the outside elements.

"Oh relax. At least you aren't these guys. They have to pay attention during this trip", she playfully said and knocked on the cockpit door. Groans could be heard coming out of it.

"Oh right, before I forget!", she suddenly said and dug into her pockets as the Bullhead began to take off, "here, these are for you two. You can pair them to your Scrolls and keep in contact that way."

Lafiel and Yonsa each got a small white wireless one-ear headset with the Beacon emblem etched into the side dumped into their laps. Lafiel picked up hers and looked questioningly at their mentor for what she meant by that.

"If he is to act as your scout, then you have to have a way to communicate with him over long distances, and Scrolls are many things, but they are not good for talking with each other while fighting or hiding", she explained, and at Pandora's questioning look, she elaborated, "you only need one person to communicate on your end, or it will get messy pretty quickly. She is the team leader, so that person is her."

"But you said that we were not allowed to leave your sight?", Lafiel asked confused.

"You still aren't, but it is never too early to begin getting used to the day that you are", Birch responded with a grin.

Lafiel thanked Birch profusely, especially since none of them had every thought of this issue beforehand. However, as she made to pair it with the Scroll attached to her right forearm, she got a nervous feeling and immediately looked Yonsa directly in the eye. No words needed to be said to know what she meant.

In response, Yonsa drew a small white Scroll forth from inside his cloak and she sighed in relief, before she continued first pairing her headset to her own Scroll, then pairing her Scroll to Yonsa's over their own local network and then finally testing that they were able to communicate. Surprisingly, they were able to hear each other as easily as if they were talking directly into each other's ears.

The rest of the trip went fairly uneventful. Since there were no windows in the Bullhead, it was impossible to see the landscape rolling by or the sun rising, so they had to pass the hours in other ways. Seishin was fast asleep, Yonsa continued quietly huddling in his cloak, Pandora had produced a brush from her bag and was brushing her black hair and Birch had Lafiel occupied playing charades.


	6. The first mission 2 of 4

Eventually, Lafiel felt the Bullhead begin to descend, and the pilots soon after announced that they would be arriving at their location in a short while. When the side door opened, sunlight streamed in and almost blinded Lafiel.

The Bullhead had landed on a field of grass just outside what Lafiel assumed to be Haulton. High stone walls surrounded the village itself, but all of its expansive fields lay outside the walls as far as the eye could see. Small roads crisscrossed the fields and there were occasional structures spread out in the distance, but it was clear that no dwellings existed outside the walls.

The people working in the fields had long since stopped working and had begun converging on their position. Children emerged in groups from the tall fields of wheat and barley and stared wide-eyed at the Bullhead and at Lafiel's group.

When one of the younger boys spotted Seishin coming out of the Bullhead, he vigorously pointed and marvelled at his size. Some of the girls quickly began whispering excitedly amongst themselves as Pandora exited the Bullhead after him.

Lafiel caught some of the younger ones openly staring at her voluminous tail, transfixed in following its movements, while some of the older ones gave it more discrete looks. A few gaped at her blue hair. No one seemed to pay much attention to Birch or Yonsa in comparison.

 _They are used to seeing someone dressed like them_ , Lafiel realized. It should have been obvious really. Huntsmen and travellers likely came here on a regular basis, but how often would Faunus and princesses stop by?

While they waited for something that Lafiel did not know what was, the onlookers cautiously crept closer. Lafiel didn't know what to do in this situation, and so, she looked to Birch first, but Birch was busy discussing something with the pilots.

Next, she looked beside her to Yonsa. He was staring intently at the mountain range just east of the village, before he slowly turned in a circle, head bopping up and down and from side to side in small movements, as if looking for something, and occasionally stopping for a moment before moving on.

"What are you doing?", she whispered to him.

"Landmark location", he answered back without stopping.

"Huh?", Lafiel huffed confused, "we already have a map to show us those? No matter, what are we supposed to do now? The kids are looking restless. Should we try to talk to them?"

"They'll pipe down in a moment", he answered matter-of-factly.

Sure enough, a short moment later, the village leader appeared and quieted everyone down. Birch shortly explained who they were and that they had come for the Beowolf job. The leader nodded and welcomed them into the village to discuss things further.

As if a dam had broken, the children all sprinted forward. Some tried to climb into the Bullhead before the adults managed to stop them, and others flooded Pandora and Seishin with attention. The adults were just about to admonish their children for their behaviour, when Birch turned around with a big grin on her face and told them that she had cleared it with the pilots.

"And as for my charges, they are yours to do with as you wish", she said with a wink towards the children, before turning around and falling into step with the village leader.

As they walked towards the village, Seishin didn't seem to mind the children climbing on him, and he even outstretched his massive arms, so that they could use them as swings. Many of the girls approached Pandora and asked if she was a princess.

With the attention mostly spent elsewhere, Yonsa and Pandora fell into step behind the procession with almost no one asking them any questions. At one point, an elderly woman approached and looked Yonsa up and down with a scrutinizing look.

"Trader?", she asked him bluntly.

"Courier, Anima", Yonsa replied equally bluntly.

"Hmm, I guess that is close enough", she mused, "know any news from Kuroyuri? I have a cousin there that I haven't heard from in years."

"It seemed well enough when I was last there four years ago, and I haven't heard anything about it from others either", Yonsa replied with something akin to reassurance in his voice.

"Hmm, I suppose no news is better than bad news", the old woman muttered and walked off.

Soon others began to approach Yonsa with similar inquiries. He in turn also began to question them about what sort of vegetation and animals roamed around these parts, how the weather had been recently, how their crops were doing, etc. Lafiel was slightly surprised at how talkative he was being with them. He also seemed far more approachable in his speech than he usually was with them. It made her slightly jealous.

As they walked under the walls, the people that had questioned him began to trickle back off into the fields. Inside the walls, the buildings stood close and the roads were mostly narrow, except for a few that could have two wagons side by side.

The group stopped at the town centre in front of the largest building in the town, which served as both the town hall and the church of the town. Unlike the other buildings in the town, this one had stone walls, narrow windows that widened outwards and thick wooden doors with metal brackets.

The children were barred from entry and only a few adults followed them inside. Once inside, they quickly found a table and sat down at it. After getting the initial details about payment and such out of the way, Birch began questioning the villagers about the area, sightings of Beowolves and from where animals and people had gone missing.

Lafiel followed every word spoken with rapt attention. In the end, they were not able to narrow down the lair any more than to say that it was likely located somewhere between the village and the mountain range to the east.

With everything achieved in the village and the sun reaching its zenith, the group of Huntresses and Huntsmen set out towards the mountains. As they left the city, the Bullhead also took off and headed back north to Beacon. They were officially on their own now.

Birch led the team and was good at stopping and showing everyone the signs she found in the nature and what they meant. Pandora was somewhat less enthused than she had been at the start after a mud pile had turned her red pants and fine black shoes into a brown mess.

Lafiel also wasn't all that fond of having the mud cling to her clothes as it did. Sand usually never coated ones clothing to the point that you were worried if it would come off. Seishin looked equally uncomfortable, though that might be because the sun was baking him in his armour.

When she had looked at Yonsa, he had been kneeling in the mud next to an acorn tree with his left hand buried deep in the mud. His cloak had dipped into the mud heavily, but when he withdrew his hand and straightened up, the only change to its colour seemed to be that it was slightly darker due to the moisture.

In his hand, he had had three hard brown lumps of mud that he brushed until small black knobby rocks appeared underneath the mud. He then wrapped them in a small cloth and stored them in his cloak. Before she could ask him about them, Birch called from up ahead that she had found a new lead.

The day continued with them searching for clues. They constantly kept getting closer and closer to the mountain range, which Birch said was not surprising, as the villagers had told them that there were many caves and caverns in the mountains.

After spotting him digging around the first time, Lafiel kept an eye on Yonsa for the remainder of the day. Occasionally, he would stop and look around, as he had done when they had first landed near the village, and at other times, he would dig around in the foliage, where he sometimes found something and at other times didn't.

When they had crossed a stream, Lafiel had spotted him washing the black rocks from earlier, some yellow mushrooms and some other plants that he had gathered. The cloth and his hands were washed on the same occasion as well.

As he was usually near the back of their group and would always quickly catch up with the rest of them before he got too far behind, no one else seemed to notice. However, when Lafiel had looked back to Birch at one time, she had seen the Huntress give her a nod.

Since the Huntress did not question the behaviour or stop it, Lafiel assumed that it was sanctioned. She would question him about it later.

The first day went by with them only killing a single solitary Beowolf. They had originally wanted to follow it, hoping that it would lead them to its pack, but the wind had suddenly shifted and it had caught their scent and attacked.

After having checked a great number of caves, they finally decided to make camp in a smaller one that would shield them from the elements, but which did not extend so far into the mountain that they had to worry about Grimm appearing behind them.

They quickly made a fire and warmed their rations. It was decided that they would need to set up a watch to keep the fire going and make sure that Grimm did not surprise them in their sleep. Lafiel volunteered for the first watch. Her past experiences in the desert of Menagerie had taught her that it was best to have the first or last watch, as they guaranteed the longest period of uninterrupted sleep. Unsurprisingly, Yonsa napped the last watch before the others had a chance to.

With the rest of the watches quickly shared, everyone but Lafiel started preparing their bedrolls and went to bed. Seishin and Pandora set up their bedrolls on either side of the fire, Yonsa moved his up against the back wall and Birch set hers up behind the fire. Lafiel meanwhile sat with her back to the fire to avoid the light ruining her night vision.

Staring out into the night with her breath visible in the light, it was easy to mistake the moving shadows created by the fire for actual movement. Nonetheless, it was still very boring to do, and Lafiel had to shake herself awake a few times to avoid drifting off. Stretching occasionally helped relieve some tiredness in her limbs and keep her awake. Strangely enough, one of the things that best kept her awake was the chill of the night pricking at her skin.

The most interesting thing that happened during her watch was hearing Pandora continuously turning around in her bedroll until she finally fell silent almost halfway through Lafiel's watch. Seishin didn't seem to have that problem, despite sleeping in his armour.

When her watch ended, Lafiel turned around for the first time since it had begun and looked at her sleeping teammates and mentor. Birch looked peaceful, though her left hand was curled around her halberd protectively.

Seishin was lying flat on his back and she had not heard him turn around even once, which was odd. It then occurred to her that his armour might restrict such movements, but it was apparently not enough to stop him from sleeping.

Pandora was lying with her hands pressed to her chest, her knees tucked up next to them and a scowl marring her face. Lafiel gently shook her awake and told her it was her time. The other girl was awake quicker and with less fuss than Lafiel had expected.

As Lafiel crept into Pandora's bedroll and whipped her tail around to hug it to her chest for warmth, she took another look at the back of the cave. Whether it was the light from the fire ruining her night vision or simply the absence of light altogether, it was not possible seeing Yonsa's form back there, but she could guess that he was likely curled up in his cloak.

 _It has to be cold back there_ , she mused as she drifted off into sleep.

When she awoke next, the sun had only just begun to rise. She looked around and saw Birch lying where Seishin had laid down, Birch lying in Seishin's bedroll and Seishin lying next to the fire with his back to the opening of the cave.

As she looked to the opening of the cave, Yonsa was sitting on the ground, huddled in his cloak with the hood up, one end of his spear resting on the ground in front of him and the shaft resting on his shoulder. The only movement to indicate that he was alive were the steady breaths that condensed in the early morning air.

His breathing was so rhythmical and his body so steady that Lafiel could not determine whether he was sleeping or not. Since she could not see his face either, she had to trust that he wouldn't just fall asleep on them.

Lafiel looked down to her Scroll and noted that there was still an hour until they had to get up, but with the sun beginning to rise and her mind likewise awakening with all the new sensory inputs, she found that she could not go back to sleep.

She didn't want to get up either, not until the sun had burned off the morning chill, so she simply huddled in her bedroll, motionlessly staring out of the cave. The fire was smaller than it had been when she had gone to bed, but upon viewing the almost empty stack of firewood that they had gathered the previous evening, it was clear that it was being kept just big enough to sustain it and give some heat to those around it, but not so big that they would need to gather more wood to make breakfast.

Eventually, Lafiel's bladder decided for her that it was time to get up, and she got up and went out of the cave. Yonsa gave her a quick silent look as she passed him, but otherwise remained motionless. That cleared up whether he was sleeping or not.

When she got back, she decided to just drag up her bedroll next to him. She wasn't going to sleep anyway, so she might as well keep him company instead of creepily stare from behind. He looked at her quietly as she moved up next to him, but otherwise did not speak. As she looked closer at him, she could see the dew glistening off of his cloak completely undisturbed, as if it had just fallen.

"Mor-", she was about to say before he interrupted her by tilting his head towards those still sleeping.

She nodded in understanding and produced her Scroll to show it to him. Lafiel used their linked up Scrolls to send him a text message asking if anything had happened so far. Upon reading it, he shook his head and went back to motionlessly staring out into the wild as he had been before. Lafiel made no further attempts at starting a dialogue.

After a little time had passed, she retrieved a comb from her backpack, positioned her tail on her lap and started gently combing it. The gentle motion was quite relaxing, and she even caught Yonsa briefly looking at the comb going through her tail once, before he went back to staring out again.

At one time, a rabbit sprinted across the field outside the cave. Lafiel's first instinct was to chase it, but she knew that it was too quick for her, so she went back to combing her tail until it was as well as it could be and she laid down her comb beside her.

As she did so, she began studying her partner beside her. Despite his motionless state, she noted that his eyes were quick to focus in on any new movements going on outside the cave. He still remained just as quiet as he always was in the morning.

Since she was not even trying to be subtle about staring at him, it was somewhat surprising that he never said anything or otherwise indicated that he wished for her to stop. She knew that she would certainly have been uncomfortable if their roles had been reversed.

Eventually, she grew tired of trying to bait a reaction out of him and began to just stare out of the cave as he did. At first, it was boring doing nothing. Then, after some indeterminate time, Lafiel somehow stopped being bored and simply was. It was as if she was asleep, but fully awake at the same time.

The sensation was disturbed when Yonsa suddenly rose and went to put wood on the fire. Instead of just keeping it lit, as it had been when Lafiel had woken, he got it properly burning. Whether it was him rummaging around or the sudden wave of heat that began to wake the others, Lafiel knew not.

Before long, everyone was up and breakfast was being cooked on the reinvigorated fire. The breakfast was nothing to write home about, but it did fill their stomachs quite well. As she ate the oatmeal sprinkled with small raisins, she remembered the plants that Yonsa had gathered the day before.

Despite her wish to continue learning from Birch about ways to track Grimm, she was more curious about what he was gathering and why. Besides, she felt that she had learnt enough yesterday that hardly anything new would arise today.

Using that as an excuse, she managed to convince Birch that it would be better to have one of the others shadowing her directly today, so that they could also learn as much as possible. Seishin immediately volunteered, with Pandora wishing to follow along as well, and the new group structure was quickly settled upon.

If she had thought that he would be more talkative than he had been before, she would have quickly been proven wrong. When she had asked what he was doing, he had simply answered foraging without an apparent need to follow it up with why, when they not only had their own resources, but were close enough to the village to get there within half a day.

Instead of trying to pry the answer out of him, Lafiel decided that it would be easier, and more amusing, to study his behaviour and make up her own theories about what he was doing and why. When questioned about it by Pandora, the other girl had laughed at her answer and told her to keep her informed.

Something that Lafiel quickly took note of was just how much Yonsa was roaming around. If she had to guess, she would say that he was covering at least three to four times as much ground as the rest of them. Despite this, he never seemed to fall behind, and it was Birch that called for breaks when some of the others appeared to get tired.

 _He might be bored with how slow the rest of us are_ , Lafiel mused, _or he could just be happy to roam about._

It was true that upon further inspection, he walked faster than her, despite his shorter legs, and he was far more adept at navigating through difficult terrain effortlessly. As she considered this, she noticed that Birch also seemed to purposefully slow her strides to allow the two others to keep up.

Upon realizing it, Lafiel immediately kicked herself for not thinking about it sooner. Yonsa had been a courier and Birch was used to walking around like this due to her time as a Huntress, so of course they would be quicker than the others.

Lafiel had only occasionally taken trips through the desert, which was far from enough to get used to constantly walking around at their pace for as long as they did, and she was almost certain that Pandora and Seishin had even less experience trekking long distances through the wild.

With that in mind, Lafiel was further bolstered in her decision to have him be the team's scout. With their difference in pace and his familiarity with different terrains, he would be able to quickly scout ahead and send back instructions on the best path for the rest of them.

As they continued searching for the Grimm nest, the morning turned into afternoon. They mostly focused on exploring the caves near the mountains, but there were so many that that alone was a gargantuan task.

Currently, they were walking a little away from a field of grass that reached all the way to Seishin's head. The mountain that they wanted to look at was on the other side of the field, but Birch was hesitant to move into the field without knowing whether Grimm were hiding in it, so she was trying to find a way around.

Yonsa had stopped roaming and kept closer to the group now as well, which somehow made Lafiel more worried than Birch's insistence on avoiding the field if possible.

This worry was nearly turned into a yelp when Yonsa suddenly tapped her shoulder. When she turned around, he motioned for her to stop and pass the message along. Before long, Birch had come back to them to see what the commotion was about.

Yonsa pointed to a spot inside the field, where the grass had been flattened recently. Tufts of grey hair were spread about here and there and the earth seemed to have been dug up at places.

"Wolf fur", Birch whispered as she studied the hair closer, "there was a struggle here. A big one, judging by the size of the imprints left behind. I am guessing it was a territorial struggle, and if the wolves were this invested in it, it likely involved their lair as well."

Lafiel marvelled at how much the Huntress was able to gather from so little. It was clear that she was not at all as well-versed as she had thought that she had been that morning. That thought led her to look at Yonsa again. How much of this had he been able to guess, or had he simply spotted the signs and thought that Birch should take a look?

As she mused these things, Birch seemed to muse over something as well. She threw glances further into the field, then at Seishin, Pandora, Lafiel and Yonsa in turn, before glancing back down into the signs on the ground.

Finally, she nodded and whispered to them, "I believe that the Grimm have likely taken over the wolves' lair on the other side of the field. This complicates matters, as the field could be an advantage and a disadvantage for us. In order to know more, I would like Lafiel to climb onto Seishin' shoulders, but to avoid being spotted immediately, Seishin can only slowly move up from a crouching position."

Lafiel and Seishin quickly did as she asked, and when Seishin was standing halfway upright, Lafiel was able to see the other edge of the field and told him to keep his position. The field of grass seemed to disappear in a half-circle around a flat mountainside that had a large opening going up through it. The field widened the closer you got to the mountains, and appeared narrowest at the centre directly in front of the mountainside.

When she told this to Birch, the Huntress told them to get down again.

"If the Grimm are truly nesting here, then we will want to avoid engaging them in the field", she told them and drew a sketch of what Lafiel had described in the dirt, "the place that is the least likely to have Grimm lurking around is near the centre, and from there, we should hopefully be able to spy into the cave and gather further information before we engage. However, since we cannot be certain that no Grimm are lurking around, we will have to keep much closer than we have been before, and you are to minimize sounds as much as possible. Also, Yonsa, you are joining me at the front. Your sniper might come in handy."

Yonsa nodded in understanding, and the new formation was quickly formed. They were walking so closely that they had to hold on to the person in front of them to avoid bumping into them or getting lost in the dense field of grass.


	7. The first mission 3 of 4

Seishin formed the rear end, as he had to bend over to avoid detection, while the rest of them were capable of walking almost normally through the field. Lafiel somewhat envied Pandora, as she was holding on to Yonsa's cloak, which was much easier to hold on to and give space than Pandora's tight fitting armour. For the occasion, she had in turn given Seishin permission to hold on to her tail instead of trying to balance while holding on to her even tighter fitting jumpsuit.

After a little while of walking, the group stopped. Yonsa was winked forward and the others followed behind him. They were standing on the edge of the field, still hidden inside it, but able to look out nonetheless.

There was too far to the cave for Lafiel to see anything specific, but she did recognize movement of dark figures, which she guessed to be the Beowolves that they had been hunting. Birch pulled out a pair of binoculars and Yonsa set up his sniper with the muzzle just sticking out of the tall grass.

Crouched on one knee in the tall grass with his hood up and the spear being a matt light brown colour, it was difficult even from Lafiel's position to pick him out from his surroundings.

"I count around 40 regulars and two alphas", Birch whispered.

"Same", Yonsa concurred, "want me to take out one of the alphas before they spot us?"

"No, your bullet wouldn't scratch it at this distance", Birch responded, "see the one next to the right alpha? The one with larger protrusions than the others."

As Yonsa confirmed sighting it, Lafiel wished that she had thought to bring binoculars as well. It was annoying being left out of the loop, with only their talk to inform her of some of it.

"It is older than the others, and the scratch marks on it indicate that it has seen combat with humans before", Birch explained, "taking it out before it has a chance to use those honed skills would be a benefit. After that, continue shooting at your own discretion until they close for melee."

After this, she turned to the others and explained the battle plan. Upon her signal, Yonsa would initiate the attack and continue firing until the Grimm figured out where it was coming from. At this point, Lafiel and Seishin would move out of the tall grass and prepare to lay down fire on the incoming Grimm.

Birch and Pandora would stay behind the two initially, but then intercept when the Grimm closed to melee, giving them more time to offload without having to worry about suddenly being tackled. When this happened, everyone would close to melee with the only instruction being to push the fighting away from the field.

"The two alphas are likely going to be the first ones here", Birch warned Pandora, "are you certain that you are ready to take one on?"

"I was first in my class in Mistral and the best of this year", Pandora simply stated, "Beowolves, even alphas, should pose no challenge to me."

Birch gave her an evaluating look, before nodding in agreement. After that, everyone got in position, with Birch placed directly next to Yonsa, who was still crouched and had by then loaded a round into the sniper rifle.

Lafiel took a deep breath and steadied her heart. They were only Beowolves, nothing that should pose a threat to the four of them, especially when Birch was around too. She looked back up at Birch, who was standing with her binoculars glued to her eyes and her right hand hovering above Yonsa's shoulder.

Tap.

Bang!

And then everything began. Yonsa reloaded with practised ease and quickly fired another shot. Bang. The sound echoed back from the flat mountainside in front of them. Bang, he fired again.

"They've spotted us", Birch stated calmly.

Lafiel knew that this was her signal. Together with Seishin, she exited the field with her Fuchskrallen held high and ready to fire down a volley of death upon the advancing Grimm. Bang, and another Grimm fell to the ground.

The Grimm didn't seem to care about their fallen comrades in the slightest. They just continued storming forward at a breakneck pace. Bang. This shot missed its mark. Then the Grimm entered Seishin's firing range, and he began unleashing hell upon them. Moments later, Lafiel did too.

Beowolves fell in droves from their combined firepower. It seemed as if they would manage to kill off most of them before they even reached the group, but then the two alphas pushed to the front and the rest fell in behind them.

Lafiel and Seishin both tried to shoot the alphas initially, but their bullets peeled off of them like they were throwing mere rocks. Bang, a shot from behind hit the chest of one of them, but only produced a scratch to show for it. It was clear that they would not be able to penetrate their thick hides.

Instead, they tried to take shots at any Beowolves that strayed too far from the safety behind the alphas. Deliberately not targeting the giant alpha Beowolf that was charging towards you was far more daunting than anything Lafiel had ever done before.

Just as the Grimm were almost upon them, two forms blurred past them and moved to engage. Birch was swinging her halberd around like it weighed nothing, and as she deflected an initial hit from the alpha, she used the spike at the end to stab a smaller Beowolf through the maw.

She then tried to make a stab at the alpha with the larger spike on the top, but the alpha swatted the halberd sideways. Instead of resisting, Birch let the momentum carry her around and even sped up along the way, so that when the halberd came back around, it was the giant axe blade that met the paw, and it was much faster than before.

Metal met bone extrusions, and the flesh gave way. The alpha howled as it lost an arm, but just as it did, Birch used the spike on the top to stab the Grimm through the open maw, ending it as she had done its smaller version moments before.

Beside the experienced Huntress, Pandora was having far more difficulties in dealing with her own alpha. She was being far more defensive than usual, and evaded more than her usual deflection tactics dictated. A smaller Grimm was about to sneak up behind her, but just as it was about to lunge at her, Seishin hammered it down into the ground with great force.

The action reminded Lafiel that she would have to engage as well. So enthralled had she been in Birch's display of skill that she had forgotten her own role in this. She quickly moved to cover Pandora's other side from any Grimm that wished to attack her.

"I can take it myself", Pandora growled as the two of them flanked her.

"We know. We are just here to prevent the smaller Grimm from interfering", Lafiel assured her friend. It would probably go faster if they tried to take it on as a team, but Lafiel knew that Pandora's pride would be hurt if they did that.

As she engaged with other Beowolves that tried to flank them, she noted that it was easy to see where Birch was. The flying hacked off limbs and jumping around Huntress were hard to miss. Lafiel could even swear that she saw a huge grin on the Huntress's face as she darted from one foe to another.

Occasionally, she would catch glimpses of Yonsa as well, sans his cloak for obvious reasons. He was doing alright, though it quickly became evident that he had no intention of joining up with either their group or Birch. Instead, he tried to manoeuvre to the edges of the fighting and keep his back clear that way.

Since Lafiel and Seishin were busy protecting Pandora during her mostly stationary duel, they were quickly surrounded. Lafiel and Seishin mostly focused on trying to keep up a clear radius for Pandora to move around in, but Seishin's wide arching swings made it equally as dangerous for Lafiel to get close to him as they did to Grimm.

Eventually, the Grimm began to thin, and before long, there were only a few left, including the alpha. They were only Beowolves after all. As Lafiel finished off her last opponent, she looked around to see how her comrades were doing.

Birch had somehow managed to simultaneously impale two Beowolves on the spikes at either end of the halberd, leaving it having in mid-air until the Grimm started evaporating. Yonsa was standing over a kneeling Grimm with his left hand holding its right paw at an angle that would certainly hurt a human, his right hand impaling his spear through the chest of said Grimm and a snarling expression on his face.

Besides her, Seishin was trying to dislodge his warhammer from a fallen Grimm that had had its chest caved in by said warhammer. And finally, there was Pandora, who was still fighting the alpha. Her tactics had changed since they began, but she was still being quite defensive compared to what Lafiel had come to expect.

A swipe from the left had the girl scrambling to duck under it, instead of deflecting and closing in as she usually did. It was only then that Lafiel realized that if she had tried to deflect it as she usually did, she would have been thrown aside like a ragdoll.

Seishin might have been able to block it and hold his ground, but there was no way that the far less sturdy Pandora could have mimicked the action. As she thought this, the others began converging upon their position.

Birch seemed to naturally understand what was going on, but Lafiel had to shake her head at Yonsa when he started moving behind the Grimm with a determined look in his eyes and a tight grip on his spear. He obeyed her unsaid command without any fuss and quickly joined the rest of them.

The alpha tried a downwards swipe towards Pandora, but she quickly jumped up and landed on the paw when it burrowed itself into the ground. Pandora and the alpha looked menacingly at each other, before Pandora bent down and started burning through the Grimm's paw.

The eerie blue glow from inside the black flesh made it a menacing sight. The Grimm howled in pain and shook both its arms wildly around. Pandora used this opportunity to leap behind the still-trashing Grimm and immediately put her hands on its back.

The same blue glow started to emanate from its chest, and before long, two holes filled with blue flames emerged from its chest. The alpha fell to the ground, defeated. Lafiel took a cursory look at her Scroll and noted that the last attack had taken a good chunk out of Pandora's aura.

"Well, that was fun", Birch chirped happily, "anyone kept score on how many they killed? No? Too bad. In any case, I would say that you all performed admirably for your first mission."

Lafiel sighed tiredly. She hoped that when she was fully trained, she would be able to be that energetic after a fight. Another look at her Scroll told her the status of the rest of her teammates. Neither she nor Seishin had lost much aura backing up Pandora, though Pandora herself had lost quite a bit during her fight with the alpha. Yonsa had lost some too, but not outside what could be expected from simply dealing with Beowolves.

"Let's explore the cave and check for stragglers", Birch said excitedly and led them forward.

The cave extended a fair bit into the mountain, before it ended in a small lake. They found no stragglers in there, but Lafiel nearly did lose her balance once in the dark. When they got out again, the sun was hanging low in the horizon.

"Hmm, it'll be late before we get back to Haulton", Birch mused, before she looked at Yonsa appraisingly, "how good are you at scouting ahead?"

"I have never tried it before, but I know how to travel on my own", Yonsa answered.

Birch let her fingers drum on the shaft of her halberd for a while as she mused it over, before finally coming to a conclusion, "how about we start practising you acting as the group scout now then? If there are any Grimm left, they should be no more than stragglers, but be careful anyway. Although, we only have one map, which I will need, so you will need to be able to give directions and find way without. Can you do it?"

Yonsa looked around at their surroundings, searching for something, before he looked back at Birch and nodded, "I will need to see the map before we leave."

Birch nodded and pulled it out. Yonsa knelt down and studied it intensely. At times, he would let his fingers trail over a landmark or road, before moving on. Finally, he folded it back up and handed it back to Birch. Without a word, he nodded goodbye to them, went and grabbed his stuff from where they had left it before the fight and then he was gone in some random direction.

"Testing, can you hear me?", his voice crackled from her earpiece.

Lafiel confirmed that she could, and before long, they were off in the same direction that he had left in. Occasionally, he would radio in advice to alert them about difficult terrain ahead and how to avoid it, but he otherwise kept radio silence.

Lafiel mused at how much smoother their journey was now than what it had been earlier. Only rarely did they have to cross obstacles like the marshes from earlier, and since he told them where the crossing was easiest on the streams that crisscrossed through the forest, they did not have to waste time finding those either.

The only real problem that she could see with doing this as a permanent thing in the future was that it further isolated him from the rest of the group, which ran contrary to what she was trying to achieve. On the other hand, continuing this might help cement his role as a contributing member of the group.

"Possible situation up ahead", his voice came in like a whisper, "I have spotted a group of armed dirty-looking people. Possibly bandits."

"What?", Lafiel said loudly in surprise, making the rest of the group stare at her in confusion.

After quickly relaying what Yonsa had told her, Birch became serious and asked that she ask how many there were, where they were headed and if he could provide any further details about them.

"There are 17 of them visible so far, but possibly more in hiding", he relayed to her in a whisper, "they seem to be heading in the direction of Haulton."

"What about their intent? And have they spotted you yet?", Lafiel asked worried.

"I don't know about their intent, but I wouldn't assume it to be benign considering the villagers didn't know they were around here", Yonsa stated, "and there is no way that they are going to…and they've spotted me."

"What?! Are you sure?", Lafiel yelled frantically into the headpiece.

"Quieter next time, will you?", Yonsa snapped at her, "and considering one of them is pointing in my direction and the rest are drawing their weapons, I would say that I am fairly confident that I have been spotted. Do you want me to lose them and double back to you later on?"

"Wouldn't that be dangerous for you?", Lafiel asked worried, to the confusion of the others, which she had forgotten to relay the information to.

"It's fine, they are a large group. It would take a lot of coordination to move quickly with that many people", Yonsa shrugged it off, or at least, she imagined him doing so, "so, should I do it? If they follow me for a while, we could probably get back to town and fly back to Beacon before they circle back."

The thought of slipping away and leaving Haulton to deal with the bandits irked Lafiel, so when she reported his offer to the others, she neglected to mention that part of his proposal. Birch became almost ashen when she heard the offer.

The Huntress furrowed her brows and looked at each of them in turn with contemplating eyes. Her fingers drummed angrily across the shaft. It was clear that she didn't like the options given to her. Finally, she took one more look around the group and asked them if any of them felt uncertain about fighting bandits.

None of them said that they did, but Lafiel recognized that it would take great bravery to say that you did in a situation such as this. It was clear to her that the question was more aimed at alleviating the Huntress's guilt than gauging their readiness.

"Good, because Huntsmen don't leave members of their team behind", she said with a nod, before turning to Lafiel, "tell him to lead them towards the clearing, where we fought the Grimm, but that he is to avoid direct contact at all costs. We will break them there and then reassess the situation afterwards."

"Understood", Yonsa panted as she relayed the information. He had evidently not had the time to wait for them to make up their minds.

The group tried to run back to the cave, but Seishin quickly became too tired to continue running, and they had to slow to a march. When they finally got there, almost all of them were out of breadth, but they knew that they would not have much time to rest before Yonsa arrived with the bandits in tow.

For someone purposefully goading a group of bandits to follow him, he sounded surprisingly calm whenever he gave a status report.

"Tell him that when he arrives, he is to climb to a good position on that mountain and provide covering fire, but make sure that he keeps out of sight until he is ready", Birch ordered Lafiel to relay, before turning to the others, "we will try to hold the centre of this clearing. That should be far enough away from the field to limit their ability to fire upon us from within, but much farther back than that, and he won't be able to get a good angle on his shots.

Seishin, you take the left flank and I will take the right. Make sure that nothing gets around us. Girls, you will hold your ground in the centre. Make sure to back each other up when needed. Also, Seishin and Lafiel, unload as much ammo as you can on them as soon as they exit the field."

After relaying her orders to Yonsa, Lafiel tried to steady her nerves as she got into position. It would be fine, she told herself. She was amongst the best in her year, and she had the best ones _and_ a skilled Huntress with her.

She didn't get that long before a brown mass burst through the tall grass and made a beeline past them without as much as looking back. Lafiel noted that though he seemed to have dropped his backpack somewhere along the way, the cloak still billowed behind him, creating a significant amount of drag.

 _He stores his bullets there_ , she remembered.

He quickly reached the flat side of the mountain that faced the clearing. Once there, he stopped for a moment, seemingly looking around for a good route to climb. Lafiel did not get to see more as loud noises tore her attention away from her partner and towards where he had come from.

Out of the tall grass burst five ragged men with assorted weapons held ready. Upon seeing them standing there, the five froze. Just as they did so, Lafiel and Seishin both began unleashing hell upon them.

The sudden attack startled them and made them stumble back into the tall grass just as more emerged from it. Unfortunately, Lafiel and Seishin had expended too much ammunition during their fight with the Grimm to keep up the barrage for long.

As their fire ended, the entire group began advancing on them. Unfortunately, no one had fled from the initial barrage, though the first five did keep back behind the others. The group quickly began spreading out, clearly attempting to outflank them.

"This is your last chance", Birch yelled, "leave, or we will be forced to take drastic measures."

They laughed at that.


	8. The first mission 4 of 4

"After chasing you for this long?", the apparent leader mocked, eyes running over them, but seemingly not looking for another, "don't be foolish. Lay down your weapons and we won't harm any of you. You're students of Beacon aren't you? I bet that there is someone ready to pay a nice ransom for all of you back there."

His eyes settled on Pandora, "especially her. Make sure to take her alive. She looks to be worth more than all of them combined."

Instinctively, Lafiel moved closer to Pandora, and on her other side, so did Seishin. Just as they did so, some of the bandits lunged at Lafiel and Birch. They quickly forced themselves into the gap created between Lafiel and Birch, separating the two.

Birch easily parried their attacks, but more quickly surrounded her. With the enemies right in front of them, Lafiel and Pandora both lunged forward to attack, which also gave space to Seishin to properly swing his warhammer around.

As much as Pandora may have struggled with the alpha, she was born to duel people. Her attacks were swift, her defences impenetrable and her technique flawless. She seemed to weave through her attackers, putting in hits here and there, but never staying around for long enough for them to gang up on her.

Lafiel fought a middle aged guy with a large moustache and a pair of daggers. He was far less proficient than those back at Beacon, and she managed to get a few good hits in before another attacker forced her to retreat back.

The forced retreat made her aware of how far the distance between herself and Pandora had become. Pandora continued advancing through the four people trying to take her down, and Lafiel was forced into retreating further back by the three battling her.

Lafiel tried to force her way through her own attackers, but found that she could not without exposing herself to attacks. She first looked to Seishin, but found him bogged down with five opponents trying to get close to him and him only just managing to keep them at bay.

Instead of trying to force her way past them, she focused on one of her own opponents and tried to bring his aura down. Behind them, a shout could be heard as Pandora managed to kick an opponent to the curb.

"Take care of this one", the moustache guy told his comrades, "I'll go help with the rich kid."

As much as Pandora wanted to stop him, the other two blocked her from doing so. Instead, she was forced to watch as he tried to sneak up on Pandora from behind.

"Pandora, behind you!", she shouted as moustache guy neared her.

Quick as a snake, Pandora used her Semblance to create blue flames in a wide arc in front of her, temporarily blinding her opponents. She then whipped around and attacked moustache guy with intense blue flames.

His aura quickly broke, and Pandora looked like she assumed that that would be it, but upon her hesitating to follow up the attack, he advanced again. By reflex, she managed to knock one of his daggers away, before delivering a palm attack with blue flames shining in front of it straight to his chest.

Like with the alpha before, the attack would surely burn straight through the man's chest, especially since he did not wear any armour. Just before it connected though, she stopped the attack in mid-air and let the flames die out.

For a moment, there had been fear in the man's eyes, but when she stopped the attack, that fear turned to malice, and he bellowed a loud laughter across the field. "They can't bear to hurt us", he laughed menacingly.

Pandora stood still, completely petrified by the events. Lafiel could see that fear was visible on her face as moustache guy moved his hands forward towards her in what appeared to be slow-motion. Just as he was about to reach her, a brown blur sped across the field.

Blood splattered across Pandora's porcelain skin as a blood-curdled scream of pain erupted from the man. Birch stood menacingly between the two of them with her blood-dripping halberd held in both hands, exactly where his hands had been moments before they had been cut off at the elbow.

"You will not touch her", she snarled menacingly.

Pandora was still frozen in shock at the gruesome display that she had just witnessed. She tenderly lifted her hands to her face and watched as they came back trembling and soaked in blood that was not her own. Before she had time to collect herself, more people attacked from behind, and Birch had to defend the both of them now.

As the attack on the duo began, so did Lafiel's and Seishin's attackers wake up again and re-ignited their fights. With all of Birch's and Pandora's opponents joining together and Pandora still too shocked to help, Birch only just had the capacity to keep everyone at bay.

"What is taking so long", she snapped at Yonsa when she managed to break free for a moment, "we could really use your help out here."

"Working on it", Yonsa replied in a strained voice.

Lafiel didn't want to think about it, but at the back of her mind there was a nagging fear that he might have left them to fend for themselves. No! He had offered to lead them away before and had offered no objections to their plan, so he couldn't do something like that. Could he?

Just then, she took another hit that saw her aura drop below ten percent. With the same glance at her Scroll, she managed to see Yonsa's aura drop slightly as well, but had no time to focus on why this could be happening.

She was not sure whether she could take another hit like that. She slashed, dodged and parried like she had never done before. The adrenalin of the fight was pumping through her veins at an incredible rate. And finally, it paid off when she broke through the aura of one of her attackers, a guy with brown eyes, a scruffy beard and a cleaver as a weapon.

He seemed surprised and nervous at suddenly being without a shield to protect him.

"Yield!", she demanded.

The moment she uttered her demand, she saw a huge grin form on his face. To her surprise, he took a step forward, despite being completely defenceless. Instinctively, it forced her to take a step away from him.

"I won't say it again. Yield!", she tried again. _Please_ , she begged.

Another step forward forced her back again, and when his partner used the confusion to swing at her from behind, it brought her out of balance and she stumbled to the ground, hands splayed out to her sides to lessen her fall.

The man with the cleaver raised it to strike down upon her. Lafiel knew that she would not be able to block in time, not with how she had fallen. Still, she had to try and hope that her aura would hold for long enough.

Whether it was fear that drove her right hand to move faster than it ever had before, she did not know, but it was not fast enough. The cleaver came down upon her head, but was impossibly stopped by her aura in mid-air.

Then, as if in slow-motion, she watched as the erratic swipe that she had made slowly dug through the man's chest. Her arm collided with and pushed the cleaver away, just as the tips of Fuchskrallen came out of the flesh, glistening red with blood.

She felt something hot and wet hit her face, and just as she registered what had happened, the man let out a howl of pain and stumbled back. Her right hand continued forward without her being able to stop it, until it dug itself into the ground.

"You bitch!", he screeched, and suddenly, everything seemed to happen much faster.

With eyes filled with malice, he once more raised his cleaver over his head, using both hands this time. The action caused his wounds to squirt out a bit of blood, but he paid it no mind. Lafiel knew that this was it. Whatever miracle had kept her aura up last time would not save her again, and she was in an even worse position to fight back than she had been before.

Bang!

A hole opened up in the middle of his chest. The action halted him in his swing and he released a strange ugh sound. Lafiel watched in horror as his brown eyes, so much like her father's, slowly looked down to the hole in his chest, before all life left them and he fell backwards.

Bang!

A scream from behind alerted Lafiel just in time to see the remnants of her other opponent's aura fade away. His mace fell to the ground with a loud clanging noise as he screamed in panic. Not wanting to end up like his friend, he quickly started running.

From the other side of the field, most of the fighting halted as both parties tried to figure out what had happened. The only exception was a young guy that continued his charge at Seishin. Seishin had already seen him and was readying a low swing to keep him away.

Bang!

The charging guy's aura crackled and sputtered as it broke, but the bullet otherwise didn't hurt him. The sudden impact did however make him stumble forward uncontrollably. Unable to stop his own swing, Seishin's warhammer connected with the man's legs and Lafiel could swear that she heard crunching noises.

Bang!

This shot just missed another of Seishin's stunned opponents. Then as if finally waking from their stupor, the other bandits started looking around the battlefield to their fallen brethren. Whether still in shock at what he had done or just following his instinct, Seishin used that moment to let out a terrifying roar to all around him. The roar even made Lafiel want to flee.

"Retreat!", someone shouted.

Bang!

This shot hit the back of a woman near Birch and Pandora, causing her aura to break.

"Run!", another shouted, and then chaos broke out as everyone that could scrambled to flee as fast as their legs would carry them.

Bang!

The shot hit someone that just managed to stumble in front of the girl from earlier, breaking his aura into tiny red pieces.

"Call him off!", she heard someone shout.

Lafiel looked back dazed to see Birch yell at her and point towards the mountain, "They're fleeing! Tell him to stop shooting!"

Right. She had the ear-piece. She was the only one that could relay orders to him.

Bang!

This shot whizzed just past the same girl, who seemed to be fleeing all the harder now. It also momentarily woke Lafiel from her stupor. She had to tell him to stop firing. Had to tell him to stop killing.

"Hold fire!", she frantically yelled into the ear-piece, "they're fleeing! Cease fire!"

"…Understood", came the belated reply, just as the last of their attackers disappeared into the tall grass. Despite some heavy breathing, it sounded surprisingly calm.

And then all was calm. Or at least it would have been, if not for the groaning heard from the two people on the ground. The young man, whose legs Seishin had smashed, was writhing on the ground, crying in pain and clutching his useless legs.

Further up ahead, a man with no forearms was desperately trying to crawl towards the tall grass by using his stumps and legs to push him forward. Lafiel recognized him immediately.

Birch surveyed the scene, before she sighed tiredly and yanked her halberd out of the ground with an angry motion. Halberd in hand, she stomped towards the crawling man just as his stumps slipped and he fell head first into the ground.

Lafiel helped herself up and began to follow the older Huntress. As she walked, she absentmindedly noted that there was a large trail of blood leading from where his arms were to where he was now. It seemed like too much for any one person to spill.

"You won't make it like this", she heard Birch say to the fallen man.

"Please, I just need to stop the bleeding", he begged desperately.

"It won't be enough", Birch said and shook her head, "unless you know of someone with a healing Semblance, there is nothing that can be done. Not this far from civilization."

The man's face became even more ashen than it had been before, and he looked desperately at each of them in turn.

"Do any of you have a Semblance like that?", Birch asked Lafiel without much hope.

Lafiel shook her head, afraid to say it out loud.

"I can make it quick, painless", Birch offered.

The man was fearful at first, but then he closed his eyes and nodded. Birch instructed him to lie on his back, to which he complied as she raised her halberd.

"Turn around", she ordered Lafiel.

Lafiel obeyed without a thought, and soon after heard the swoosh of the halberd flying through the air, before a dull thud indicated that it had hit the ground. As her mind conjured up images of the gruesome scene, she looked down to her own right hand.

She had blood on it, she noted. She had blood on her hands. Blood that had belonged to a now dead person had dripped from her blades down to her hands and further down to splatter on the screen of her Scroll.

Her Scroll shone just as brightly as it always did. Her aura bar was nearly empty. Lafiel was still surprised that it wasn't. Besides hers was her partner's. Strange, she didn't remember it being that low.

"Follow me", Birch told her in a compassionate yet firm voice, as she led her by the hand.

Lafiel followed without question, noting that Birch was without her brown trench coat. When she looked back, the body had been covered by it, hiding what was beneath it from sight.

Seishin was kneeling opposite of Pandora, who was openly sobbing into his chest, as he patted her back. Lafiel wanted someone to cry with too. She thought of her father. She wanted him here so much it hurt.

As they neared the young man with the broken legs, his eyes grew panicked and he tried to claw himself away from them. Lafiel noticed that he sobbed, begged for them to spare him as they drew closer. He said he was too young to die and didn't know any better.

 _So were we_ , Lafiel thought and recalled the cleaver being raised.

"We won't kill you", Birch said in an authoritative voice, "your friend was dying and I helped him along. You are not."

He thanked them profusely, even trying to get on his knees, before they gave out under him and he howled in pain. Birch let go of Lafiel's hand and bent down to take a look at his legs. The grimace that she gave did not bode well for them.

"You won't ever be able to use these again", she stated matter-of-factly, "if we take you back to Vale, you might be able to get prosthetics."

"If I go to Vale, I'll be arrested on sight and thrown away for life", the young man said with a harsh laugh.

"Not if you help us find the others", Birch said softly, "if you cooperate and show remorse, you might be able to get out of prison within a few years. Vale has a good rehabilitation program to help you once you get out."

"Sell out my friends?", the young man asked confused, "they would kill me if I did."

"They might try to kill you anyway to make sure you shut up", Birch argued, "if you agree, we will protect you both now and in prison. If you don't, you will be the crippled kid wasting his life away in prison, constantly wondering if today will be his last."

The young man thought deeply for a moment, before he slowly nodded, "I'll cooperate."

Birch nodded with satisfaction, before she stood and turned to Lafiel.

"How far away are they and in what direction?", she asked her.

Lafiel was confused for a moment, before she remembered Yonsa atop the mountain and relayed the question to him.

"I lost them in the woods a couple of minutes ago", Yonsa answered through the ear-piece, "they were headed north-west, but it didn't look like they were aiming for somewhere."

Birch nodded as Lafiel relayed the information, before she looked out at the setting sun. Its orange rays illuminated the sky for a little longer yet. Birch slowly closed her eyes for a moment, before she opened them again with a haunted look in them.

"Tell him to come down", Birch ordered, "and after that, help this guy into the cave."

"We aren't going back?", Lafiel asked confused.

"No, I will not travel through these forests at night. Especially not knowing that these people are still out there", Birch explained, before she walked away.

Lafiel did as she was told and tried to help the young man up to his feet. The moment he put weight on them, he screamed in pain, eliciting Seishin to come look at what was going on. Lafiel quickly explained the situation, and together, they moved him into the cave. Pandora followed behind Seishin like a little duckling.

Seishin couldn't stop staring at the broken legs with a guilty expression showing on his face, and whenever he accidentally triggered a pained yell, Lafiel had to watch as he bit back vomit.

When they finally got him inside, Lafiel turned around to see Birch dragging her brown trench coat out into the field. It took her a moment to realize that it was not the trench coat that she was dragging. As she looked to where she herself had fought, she noted that nothing was there.

A few minutes later, Birch emerged from the tall grass with her trench coat folded under her arm. Was that it? Could what had happened here be removed just like that? Somehow, it didn't seem fair to the dead that they were being hidden away like that.

Birch joined them in the cave and began to tend to the young man's wounds. In conversation, they learned that his name was Necyria. Before they could learn anything else however, Yonsa joined them. Upon his arrival, Birch sighed and stood up, facing all of them at once.

"Before anything else, I would like to tell you all that you were all very brave out there", she said comforting, "you managed to fight off an experienced band of fighters despite being outnumbered and tired from the Grimm fight. For that, you should be proud of yourselves.

As to how it ended..."

At this, she looked conflicted for a moment, before she pressed on, "Pandora, I know that not being able to harm another person might seem like a weakness, but it is also a strength to be able to hold back from killing another, like you did. You shouldn't ever consider your compassion as a weakness.

Seishin…nothing could have been done to change the outcome of that last attack. Necyria is alive, wounded, but still alive. Don't let it keep you down for more than it has to."

Upon finishing with those two, she turned to Lafiel and Yonsa and gave a tired sigh, "I didn't see what happened, but I saw the…aftermath. Please tell me your side."

Lafiel quickly retold what had happened. How she had demanded that he yielded, how she had fallen, how she hadn't meant to cut into him, and finally, how it had ended. As she finished telling her story, Birch looked from her to Yonsa and then back to her again.

She put a hand calmly on her head and gently patted it, "it's alright. You panicked and it might very well have saved your life. You shouldn't hold yourself responsible for the death."

Then she turned to Yonsa. At first, she seemed to struggle with what to say, before she finally just asked, "did you know that his aura was broken?"

"Looking back, it was obvious", Yonsa denied.

"Still, aiming for the chest is not something that you should ever do unless you are absolutely certain that they can take it", she continued.

"I aimed for his shoulder", Yonsa lied, making Lafiel's tail twitch. No one else saw it.

"And after that?", she asked nervously.

"We needed to make them flee. Breaking a few auras made them retreat, and firing at them for a short while after showed that we were serious in case they wanted to turn around", Yonsa explained calmly.

Birch thought about his answer for a short while. He _had_ missed twice near the end. Then she nodded in acceptance. She then tried to comfort him like she had the rest, "I checked over his wounds. He would have died anyway without immediate medical attention. You gave him a quick death. Take solace in that, if nothing else."

Lafiel recalled her words from before. A quick death. Was that the best that could be hoped for out here if you were badly injured?

Birch ran a hand through her hair as the sun finally disappeared beneath the horizon, before she told them to set up camp and prepare dinner as she went out to look for firewood.

"I left my backpack in the forest", Yonsa said and stopped her as she was about to walk away, "it contains my share of the rations and a few other things. I would like to go get it."

"No", Birch denied the request immediately, "none of you will enter that forest without me looking over your shoulder the entire way. You are all to stay here while I am gone. If the food gets tight, we will just have to endure until morning. I have already called ahead and told Beacon to pick us up here tomorrow, as well as warned Haulton about what has happened."

"We should also bury the bodies", Yonsa continued in a seemingly rare display of consideration, "they will attract wolves."

Perhaps not.

"The wolves were chased out of here", Birch argued, "they won't be back tonight."

Yonsa accepted both of her decisions, and Birch was then free to go gather firewood.

The others began unpacking their supplies, but Lafiel realized that with one extra person and one ration less, they would now only have 2/3 of what they usually ate. Still there was nothing to gain by complaining about it.

Surprisingly, just as they put the bean dish over the fire, Yonsa drew forth the three knobby black rocks that she had seen him collect earlier. While the dish stewed, he cut them into small pieces with a knife hidden somewhere on his person.

It turned out that they were some kind of root vegetable that had fine white lines running through them in a pattern similar to bark. When he thought the dish ready, he dumped the pieces into it and started stirring.

It wasn't much, but at least it was something. She also remembered that he had picked up some yellow mushrooms, but she didn't feel that she could bring it up now, after he had clearly already added something more than anyone had expected.

After they had eaten, Birch instructed them that they were to rest for the next 10 hours. However, she also wanted two people to keep watch at all times. This turned into all of them getting 4 hour watches, which were offset from each other by 2 hours, so that 1 person was always fresh.

Due to this, they would only get 6 hours of sleep, just like yesterday. Yonsa immediately called dips on the split watch that had the first two and the last two hours. Lafiel quickly asked if she could get the first 4 hour watch. She wanted to speak with Yonsa in private, but didn't say it.

Birch looked at her for a little while, clearly musing over something, before she nodded and instructed Lafiel that she was to wake her up upon the end of her watch. With just two watches left, it was decided that Yonsa would wake up Pandora, who would then wake up Seishin.

With everything decided, everyone quickly went to bed. Since there were two people on watch, they had just enough sleeping bags for everyone. As opposed to earlier, they set up their sleeping bags further into the cave and away from the fire, so that if the bandits came snooping, they would not be able to see if they were awake or not.

Soon, it was just her and Yonsa sitting around the fire. Well, more with their backs to it than anything else, since they didn't want to ruin their night vision. In between looking out of the cave, hoping not to see anything, Lafiel also stole looks at Yonsa.

He didn't look like someone that had just killed a man. If he had seemed distraught, it would have been easier to dismiss, but his nonchalant attitude about it had her on edge. She looked down at her hands again. They were clean now.

An hour ticked by with nothing happening. Lafiel tried to work up the courage to ask him, but whenever she did, the image of a dead man raising the cleaver over his head would make her want to forget it ever happened.

"I'm going outside for a bit", Yonsa suddenly said and got up.

"Birch told us that we weren't allowed to leave without her supervision", Lafiel objected.

"She said we weren't allowed to enter the forest. I am just going out to stretch my legs and look around for a bit", Yonsa pointed out.

Lafiel didn't get a chance to object further before he was out of the cave. Not wanting to be alone at a time like this, and recognizing this as an opportunity, she quickly followed him. It was dark outside, but not so dark that she couldn't see.

"Umm…Yonsa?", she finally worked up the courage to say after they had gotten a bit away from the entrance.

"Yes?", Yonsa replied, looking around and back up at the mountain.

"About…the man that you…shot", she hesitantly said, "you said that you were aiming for his shoulder…"

And just like that, she saw him tense up. She didn't even have to ask her question. His actions had already given her his answer.

"Why lie?", she asked, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer, "…did you know his aura was down?"

"I already said that it was obvious when looking back at it", he reiterated his earlier answer.

"Did you know?", she demanded more forcefully.

His silence was answer enough. Lafiel almost gasped, and brought her hands up to stifle the sound.

"You killed someone!", she accused in a high-pitched voice.

"You were down. I had to make a choice", he explained, still not facing her.

"But why lie about it? We would have understood", Lafiel asked distraught, "and why even lie about aiming for the chest? You always…no…

…And the rest? Did you aim to kill them too?"

"Don't tell anyone!", he whirled around to face her, "I did what I had to do. You were down, Pandora was down, and they didn't think any of us would harm them. I had to make them reconsider that."

"So you started killing them? To prove your point?", she half-accused half-asked.

"I only killed one, which I wouldn't have had to do if you had not been knocked down. Then I made the rest think twice about those who remained fighting", he defended.

"Necyria's legs…", Lafiel realized, "it was no accident, was it?"

"Like I said, don't tell anyone", he demanded again.

"…But you, you have to. I mean, you can't keep something like this to yourself", Lafiel said, "we are a team, remember? We back each other up, no matter what."

Instead of answering, he took a step towards her, and she instinctively took one away from him. He caught her gaze, forcing her to look at him as he pointedly took another step forward. This time, she took two steps back. He snorted in triumph. Lafiel only then realized what he had meant to do.

"Don't. Tell. Anyone", he punctuated his demand.

"You want me to lie? To our teachers? Our friends? Our teammates?", she asked unbelievingly.

"I saved your life", he snarled, finger stabbing into her chest, "you owe me. Not a word to anyone. I will obey your orders as team leader and do my duties to the team. If you want to fight Grimm, I will back you up. If you want to become the winning team at Vytal, I will do my part. Don't ask for more."

With that, he walked away from her without another word. Lafiel went back inside the cave and did not speak more with him that night. When his watch ended, he went past her with only a warning look. Pandora replaced him, though she was hardly better company than the silence that had been before.

Before long, Lafiel's watch ended as well, and she woke up Birch. She thought about telling the Huntress about what she knew, but she couldn't. She owed him for saving her life. Instead, she simply reported that nothing had happened and went to bed.

That night, she dreamt of blood and murder. In one dream, Yonsa was sitting on one knee with his sniper at the ready, and whenever he fired a shot, a body would appear beside him. Worst of all, it was always someone that she knew. 'Not a word', he told her as the ground became covered with bodies.

She woke up with a start to the smell of something sizzling. Further inspection showed Seishin and Yonsa roasting the yellow mushrooms in a small pan with plenty of grease, herbs and the beans that were their breakfast rations.

Lafiel caught Yonsa's gaze. He looked down at the sizzling mushrooms with a small imperceptible nod. She understood. He would do his part for the team, and in return, she would keep quiet about their earlier discussion.

The rest of the morning proceeded without much of importance happening. The Bullhead arrived and picked them up. It then carried them to Haulton, where there were several Vale Guard Bullheads flying around, to the amazement of the children.

Vale would apparently not allow bandits to roam freely within its area of influence.

They handed over Necyria to the Vale Guards, talked a bit with the village leader, who thanked them profusely for their unexpected assistance to his town, and then took off and flew back to Beacon.

Lafiel hoped dearly that they would have no more missions like this one.

* * *

Man, it suddenly got heavy, didn't it? Oh well, no pain no gain.


	9. The rift

Yo, long time no see. Well, it took longer than I had expected to figure out a roadmap for getting out of the fallout of the last chapter in a good way, but I should have it mostly covered by now.

* * *

 **The rift**

 **Yonsa  
** Yonsa sighed annoyed. It was proving more difficult to obtain information about how the courier and trader business operated in Sanus than he would have liked. He had expected there to be some obstacles to cross when searching for information, but the utter lack of results so far was not expected.

Back in Anima, the big cities had never publically acknowledged the existence of the sprawling networks, child labour laws and all that, but it had always been an unspoken fact hidden just beneath the surface of every town he had ever entered.

The villagers in Haulton had strengthened his belief that there was something similar in place in Sanus, but he had not been able to find any information about it on his Scroll so far.

With another tired sigh, he threw the Scroll on his nightstand and plopped down on his bed. There was no one but him in their room at the moment. If there had been, he would not have been openly investigating the market, or acted so carefree.

While Lafiel had kept silent about the incident for the last few weeks, she had not returned their relationship to normal. A rift had formed between the two of them, and worse, the others had taken notice and were already eying him suspiciously.

And so, he had had to make sure that they continued to perceive him as useful to the team.

It was annoying. They had completed their first mission with flair, even upped the ante by taking on some bandits, and no one had lost limbs or lives, so why couldn't they just be happy about that and move on? Why did Lafiel have to make a big deal out of how it had ended?

Even their fellow students had considered them heroes after the stories spread upon their return. For a time at least. Then the fad had faded when too many conflicting stories had emerged about what had happened.

In some of them, it was 50 bandits, and half of them had been taken out by Pandora alone. Both Team LPYS and the Beacon faculty had remained tight-lipped about the incident, so there had been no one to correct those assumptions. Yonsa still chuckled at the thought of Pandora taking out 25 bandits.

He sort of understood why the school had mandated some therapy sessions for them when they got back. Having a bunch of unstable and highly trained Huntsmen was never a good thing. He could also understand why Pandora had chosen to extend her sessions.

She was no Huntress. Never had been and likely never would be. Yonsa had recognized that early on. In his opinion, she was here because she thought of it as a sport. A nice exhilarating way to get the blood pumping and stave off the boredom of whatever the high classes of Mistral did. To be honest, he was a little surprised that she had not dropped out already.

He had passed his therapy sessions with what he considered to be flying colours, and hadn't requested anymore. Playing up the 'necessity of choosing between his team and shooting' angle had seemed to convince the therapist well enough that he was fit to continue on without further supervision. As long as Lafiel didn't reveal anything incriminating in her sessions, that is.

It still irked him that he had let her find out. Not to mention that he had had to use her life debt to him to shut her up. Despite how useful debts and blackmail could be in the moment, they always turned relationships sour sooner or later.

Still, they were useful on occasion. It reminded him that he had to find something on Seishin. Something more incriminating on Pandora would be nice too. He wasn't sure how far threatening to tell her parents that she had lied about her team and their sleeping arrangements would be, but it should be enough to get him out of minor squabbles. Plus, the mere fact that she hadn't told them meant that he wouldn't have to worry about what she told them about him.

The fact that he had to work this hard just to ensure his future at Beacon, not to mention the incessant insistence of pre-mission Lafiel to "include" him, was another thing that irked Yonsa greatly. They were supposed to work together, not sleep together.

Yonsa closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths as he rolled his neck. All the stress that he had been able to let out during their mission had come back quicker than it had last time. Perhaps he should go train his Semblance. Getting out a bit might help alleviate his dark mood.

Abruptly, he sprang from the bed and gathered up his cloak and spear. He also checked his backpack once more. It was packed and ready to go, just like it had been when he had checked it that morning. He threw a hesitant look towards the nightstand, where his Scroll still lay.

He was tempted to leave it, it would only get in the way, but…he had made a promise…

Nodding to himself, he grabbed the Scroll and the headset that had been given to them. You had to keep your word when travelling outside the kingdoms, or else you would quickly find yourself without a job. With the Scroll pocketed in his cloak, he set out.

The hallways were less crowded today than they usually were. It was probably because many of the students had already gone home for the two week Winter Break, despite school technically still being in session for today. However, since everyone had been given self-study for the entire day, no teachers would mind the absences.

As he wandered out of the dorm and across the snow-covered front yard, he thought about the Winter Break. On the one hand, it would be nice to not be crowded by so many people all the time, but on the other hand, it also meant that there was less opportunity to hide in the crowd from those that remained.

Yonsa didn't know which option was worse. The former meant that in their loneliness, more might try to strike up conversations and develop bonds that he would not reciprocate, and the latter had him on a near constant edge.

He supposed that with the other two out for the duration of the break, he could use the time to try and mend the rift between him and Lafiel. It would likely never become what it had been, but if it could improve his situation in the team, then it might be worth doing.

Besides, Yonsa was still not sure whether he actually wanted it to return to how it had been.

The snow crunched under his soles as he trekked across the empty fields. The air was crisp today, with a slight sting to it. Good. It should keep the other students inside with their soft blankets and warm beverages.

Yonsa didn't begrudge them that. When winter had arrived in Anima, he had always tried migrating towards the southern villages for work. While it was true that people usually paid more in the snow-covered villages, the winter also made it far more dangerous to trek from one to another.

Little food could be foraged during winter, and the blizzards could easily waylay you for days on end. Add to that that the snow made it far easier for starving bandits to track lone travellers, and it simply didn't seem worth it to him.

The edge of a cliff soon appeared before him. Beside him, the platforms used to catapult new students off the cliff were hidden beneath a layer of snow. Yonsa knelt at the edge and studied the way down. The snow and ice would make it more difficult than it had been before.

Still, no use in grumbling about it. He removed the protective red sash and held out his spear in one hand with the tip pointed towards the ground below. Fate's Edge, Pandora had dubbed it. Then he dropped itand watched it plummet towards the ground and buried itself deep into the snow below.

A moment later, and he too had vaulted over the edge. Unlike the spear however, he descended down the cliff at a controlled pace. There were once or twice when his grip almost slipped, but eventually, he made it to where the spear had landed.

He was now officially outside Beacon's borders and inside Forever Fall.

Eyes searching for signs of Grimm, he quickly pulled his spear out of the ground and headed away from the cliffs. Once he was sufficiently inside the forest and had found and secured a good clearing, he took off his cloak and hung it on a branch.

The cold air made him shiver slightly, but it would not do so for long. Yonsa picked out the Scroll and its headset from his cloak's pocket and paired the headset with the Scroll, before dumbing the Scroll into the hood of the cloak, so that he could see its display.

Four aura bars were visible on the screen, with his own being the largest of them. Two were in motion, Lafiel' and Pandora's. They had to be training together then. Yonsa slowly backed away from the Scroll until his own aura bar blinked out. At this point, he used the end of his spear to make a line in the snow indicating the distance. He continued this process until he had drawn a full circle around his cloak.

Satisfied with his work, he moved a little further away from the cloak and sat down on the snowy field. Once down, he quickly made two dozen and one small identical snowballs and placed them around him. He took the first one and slowly, but surely pressured it with his fingers until it broke.

Nodding to himself, he then picked up another snowball and activated his Semblance to boost his strength by 100%. He repeated the procedure of slowly but surely applying pressure to the snowballs until they broke.

Each time that one broke, he would deactivate his Semblance to conserve aura. Eventually, he was able to get a good grip on exactly how much force he should lay into his grip to achieve the same results as he normally would.

Yonsa's Semblance was Aura Manipulation, and it allowed him to use his aura as a fuel to boost the strength, speed and/or shield of himself or others. While highly useful, there were some severe limitations that came with it.

It took a while for your brain to work out that it suddenly had more power or speed at its disposal than it was used to. This meant that until you got used to it, you were basically a toddler with only limited fine motor control. This was especially confusing since it would only be for a limited time period before you went back to normal.

Increasing the strength was usually the easier of the two aspects to deal with in Yonsa's opinion. Mastering it was just a matter of getting a feel for how much force you needed to put into things compared to normal. Increasing your speed was trickier.

Sure, your arm or leg would move faster, but unless you were used to it, your other body parts wouldn't have even been told to move by the time that they were supposed to have moved already. Mastering each speed setting took training and effort, much like a toddler learning to walk for the first time.

Yonsa already had 25% and 50% increases in speed and strength locked down before arriving at Beacon, but the Beowolf fight had shown him that he needed to improve if he was to make it as a Huntsman. While the job had paid well, Yonsa was unsure of whether he could complete it on his own at his current state.

He was fairly sure that he could deal with the Beowolves on his own. Opening with some sniping and then kiting them around for a while would enable him to limit their numerical superiority. No, it was the accompanying alphas that worried him.

Their hides were too resistant for sniping them from anything but extreme close range, and their smaller brethren would keep him from being able to focus on just one. He supposed that he might be able to take one down by sniping it through its open maw, but it would be a risky move.

And so, he had to use whatever time he had left at Beacon to get stronger as quickly as possible.

That being said, he was simultaneously in another conundrum regarding how much time he would have left at Beacon. If he spent too long here without getting strong enough to become a Huntsman on his own, then he would not have enough Lien to return to Anima and continue his courier job.

On the other hand, if he was kicked out too soon, then he would not have gained enough skills to even claim to be a third tier Huntsman, and then this entire endeavour would just have been a waste of resources that would take years to build up again.

It would have been more comforting if he had been able to find something about Sanus' courier network, so that he could fall back on that until he saved up enough Lien to make the journey back. Unfortunately, nothing seemed to be that easy.

Before he knew it, all of the snowballs had been crushed. Satisfied with this, he stood up, activated his Semblance again and jumped into the air as high as he could. He repeated this for a while, before moving on to other simple activities.

Before long however, he could feel his aura reaching a low level and decided to rest for a while to let it recharge. Yonsa sat up against the trunk of a tree and closed his eyes for a moment, clearing his head of any thoughts, before he opened them again.

This time, they were scanning for movement, just as his ears were listening for the crunching of snow to indicate nearby Grimm. He hoped that his clear mind would be enough to not let any Grimm notice him unless they literally stumbled into the clearing.

The air was cold around him, and his body shivered from it, but he would not go get his cloak with the Scroll still in it. Instinctively, he drew his legs up to his chest and put his arms around them.

Once he was sufficiently recharged, he decided that it would be enough strength training for today, and moved over to speed training instead. Again, he would be trying to get used to the 100% increase, as he had been trying to since they got back.

Standing up, he activated his Semblance and immediately felt the aura pouring out of him. Even fully rested, he doubted that he would have more than 100 seconds before it was gone completely. Two minutes, tops.

Not wanting to waste it, he took a step forward, and then another and another after that. Always walk before you run, he reminded himself as he took another step forward. Soon though, he felt confident enough to try running, and immediately fell head first into the snow.

His left leg had been a tad bit too slow, and that had made him stumble, which in turn had quickly escalated uncontrollably due to him not being used to this speed yet. It was a mistake that could have cost him dearly in a fight.

Not that he used his Semblance in fights that often anymore. It was too noticeable for the watchful eye. His ace up the sleeve had to remain a surprise if he was to stand a chance against the likes of Pandora. As he thought of her, he wondered how long he would be able to up her speed by 100%. 40 seconds? 60?

Not that it really mattered. He usually only used his Semblance on opponents momentarily to confuse them or make them hit too hard or too fast, and even that practice had now been restricted to the times when he had been under great pressure and had acted on instinct.

Grunting into the snow, he got up again and decided to quit the run training for now. Instead, he produced a set of balls and began juggling them, trying to keep them in the air as long as possible. It was frustrating work, and it was made no better by the limited timeframe he had to work with. At least the strength exercises didn't drain his aura as quickly.

As he rested against the tree yet again, he began to think of how much longer this training was taking than his previous settings had. Granted, the 25% setting had been far less structured, but it had still proceeded quite a bit faster than this.

He partly blamed the much larger jump that he was taking this time, which resulted in far more drastic readjustments than earlier, and partly blamed the fact that the increased aura drain and limited time away from prying eyes severely limited the amount of time that he had to train.

As he mused over these things, the call came.

 **Pandora  
** Pandora struck high, forcing Lafiel to parry and expose her midsection to a strike with her elbow. The strike didn't blow the air out of her, as she still had her aura, but it did chip away at it a little.

Lafiel retreated and tried to hold her off with slashing attacks, but Pandora was quicker and managed to trip her opponent. Lafiel fell with her back hitting the softened mats of the training room. Seizing the opportunity, Pandora rushed in and prepared to deliver the final blow.

Her Semblance lighted up in her right hand as she swiped away Lafiel's attempt to block her with her left. She then brought her right hand down directly to her opponent's chest. A scream of pain followed by images of blood splattering flashed before her.

Her Semblance died out, and she was motionless as she stood atop Lafiel with one hand hovering just above her chest.

 _Not again!_ , Pandora cursed as she struggled to get her Semblance to work again.

Below her, Lafiel recognized the signs and a sympathetic look spread across the girl's face. Pandora didn't like that one bit.

"It's alright, we can try again", Lafiel said as Pandora helped her up.

"I don't want to try!", Pandora exclaimed, ashamed at her own weakness, "I want to do it!"

Ever since the mission, she had been unable to use her Semblance to deliver a final blow. It was the reason why she had stopped participating in public duels during training, and why she was still attending therapy, despite all of the others already having completed theirs.

"It will come back", the other girl encouraged, "no one is judging you for taking a while to get over this. It is only natural."

"Not for you guys", Pandora snapped, "none of you have problems wielding your weapons."

It wasn't really fair of her to say that. She had seen how Seishin and Lafiel occasionally glanced at their weapons whenever something happened that reminded them of what their weapons had done during the mission. Not to mention that Lafiel had asked her to take her armour-shopping after the Winter Break.

"Not everyone reacts similarly to stuff like this", the other girl said to soothe her.

Instead of soothing her, it just made her more frustrated. It wasn't fair that she was the only one weak enough to be affected like this. Unlike the others, she hadn't even hurt anyone. She had nothing to feel guilty over, so why had it turned out like this?

"I wish I would react like you guys", she said, "Yonsa is hardly affected at all. I wish I had just some of that strength."

"No!", Lafiel exclaimed loudly, "you shouldn't want strength like that. You don't need it."

Pandora was taken completely aback at the sudden outburst, and was not for the first time happy that they were alone in the training room. She knew that something had come between the two partners, but had so far not wanted to put Lafiel on the spot by asking her directly.

"…Lafiel", she hesitantly began to say.

"I can't tell you about it", Lafiel interrupted her in a conflicted voice, "just…don't…"

Don't what? Ask any more questions or wish that her abilities had not been crippled like this? Pandora wanted to ask more, but it was clear that the other girl would not like it if she did.

"Again", she said with nod and got into position again.

"Again"´, Lafiel repeated relieved and mirrored her.

Their match resumed once more. Lafiel was a good fighter, but not as good as Pandora was. Or at least had been. They traded blow for blow, no one getting the edge over the other yet. Pandora had not yet gotten a chance to use her Semblance effectively yet, so she stuck to normal kicks and punches.

The match continued like this for a while, until Lafiel suddenly stopped altogether. Confused at what her opponent was doing, Pandora looked at her with a questioning look without getting out of her fighting stance.

"We might as well stop this if you are going about it this way", Lafiel said sadly.

"What do you mean? I am trying as hard as I can", Pandora said annoyed at the accusation.

"Don't give me that", Lafiel exclaimed, "you had several openings that you could have tried to use your Semblance to finish the match, but you let all of them pass."

As she said it, Pandora knew it to be true, but was ashamed to admit it, even to herself. There had been chances that she had opted out of in place of a kick or a punch, but she had been able to convince herself that they were not good enough every time.

"I am trying", she defended, "it's just….difficult."

"I know it is", Lafiel said softly, "but I also know that you can do it."

 _Not this again_ , Pandora lamented, "perhaps we _should_ stop for today. I have yet to pack, after all."

"It will be strange not having you or Seishin here over the break", Lafiel admitted.

"You can still visit Seishin. He is just staying with his family in the city", Pandora answered.

"Yeah, I know, but it still won't be the same as living with you guys", Lafiel said.

While Pandora and Seishin were both going back to their families for the Winter Break, the slower journey to Menagerie would take too long for Lafiel to make it there and back again in time for school to start up again, and Pandora was not sure if Yonsa even had someone to go home to in Anima.

Suddenly, Lafiel's face lighted up, like she had gotten a brilliant idea.

"If you have time, I want you to try something that might help you get over this", she offered.

"What?", Pandora asked equally eager and nervous that it might not work.

Instead of answering immediately, Lafiel took hold of Pandora's hand in a soft grip and gently lifted it to touch her chest.

"What are you doing?", Pandora asked nervous about the sudden contact.

"Try activating your Semblance", Lafiel said softly but with firmness to it.

"But-", Pandora started to say.

"Don't worry, I have my aura on", Lafiel interrupted her, "and you won't be breaking it if you scale it down."

"But what if it suddenly breaks and I end up hurting you?", Pandora said worried.

"I trust you", Lafiel said simply and locked eyes with her.

Pandora nodded and let her Semblance out just a little. It was only a very small blue flame, but she knew it to be chipping away slowly at her friend's aura. This wasn't so hard after all.

"Your aura is getting close to breaking", Pandora said worried after a while.

"I know", Lafiel said and tightened her grip, "continue. Trust me."

Pandora hesitated, but then she made up her mind and pushed on. She would conquer this. Her Semblance flared a little, and then Lafiel's aura broke. She quickly shut it off again to avoid hurting her friend.

"See, you _can_ do it", Lafiel said triumphantly.

"It doesn't really count like this", Pandora pointed out.

"No, but it is a start", Lafiel countered and let go of her hand.

"You are right, it is", Pandora agreed and hesitated a little, before she continued, "since I trusted you to do this, could you trust me enough to tell me what is going on with you and Yonsa? I can see it hurting you."

Lafiel hesitated, "I'm not supposed to…"

"According to whom?", Pandora said pointedly, "someone you are fighting with?"

Lafiel still looked conflicted, "I still don't know…"

"Come on, I trusted you with this", Pandora pressed, "I want to help you."

"…Alright", Lafiel acquiesced and began to tell her story, though it jumped a bit and lacked more than a few details.

What she did manage to tell Pandora however, both shocked her and somehow didn't. On the on hand, she could imagine Yonsa being that callous about murder, but on the other hand, she didn't think he would have actually threatened Lafiel like that.

The mere thought of it made her mad. How dare he!? This was taking it way too far to be allowed to just be swept under the rug. In a second, she had her Scroll out and was dialling his number.

"What are you doing?", Lafiel asked her nervously.

"Exactly what it looks like", she growled.

"His monitor isn't on, so he has likely left it at-", she managed to say just before the call went through.

""This is Yonsa", he greeted neutrally.

"Where are you?", she demanded to know.

"Out and about", he answered vaguely, with a hint of nervousness in his voice.

"Get back to the dorm right now", she ordered him.

"What is this about?", he said suspiciously.

"Get back to the dorm, and I'll tell you", she said instead of answering directly.

"…It'll probably be a little while", he answered in the same neutral voice that he had started with.

"Just do it", she ordered and hung up.

As she turned around, she saw Lafiel being completely pale and with a very nervous expression clear on her voice. Pandora was going to kill him for making her friend this afraid of him.

"No, no, no. Why did you have to tell him I told you?", she said exasperated, as she combed a hand through her blue hair.

"I won't allow him to threaten you into silence like that", Pandora stated.

"He didn't threaten me!", she tried to defend.

"You said he scared you and made you not tell anyone", Pandora pointed out.

"Yes, but he didn't threaten me into silence!", Lafiel countered, "I owed him for saving my life."

"Oh…but he still shouldn't have done that", Pandora said, refusing to allow him off the hook.

Reluctantly, Lafiel agreed that there was no way to go back on it now, so they would just have to meet with him and have everyone put their cards on the table. Pandora fully expected to grill him about what else he had been hiding from them. If he had tried to hide this from them, then who knows what else he had hiding in the closet?

On their way back, Lafiel commented that he was showing back up on the team's aura monitor again, and that his aura was less than half full. Pandora suggested that he had probably been training and had left his Scroll with his stuff, but otherwise did not think further of it.

Despite them taking some time to get back to the dorm room, they still had to wait for a while for him to arrive. When he did, it was with a cautious knock to the door.

"Come in", Lafiel sounded out, and the door slightly opened to reveal Yonsa in his cloak and with Fate's Edge ready at his side.

Just from his body language alone, it was clear to Pandora that he came in ready for a fight to break out at any moment.

"You lied to us, and Birch", she accused immediately, adding Birch at the end.

Instantly, he shot a dark accusing look at Lafiel, who for her part seemed torn between looking guilty and trying to appear calm and collected. Pandora tried to signal that he should be looking at her when defending himself.

"And how many have you blabbed this to?", he asked Lafiel darkly, purposefully ignoring Pandora.

"She doesn't need to answer that!", Pandora interjected, finally catching his attention.

"Just you then, Princess", he inferred, "in that case, I will make this simple. Don't tell anyone about this or I'll tell your parents that you lied about your teammates and your housing."

 _Did he just try to blackmail me?_ , she thought furiously. No one blackmailed her!

"I could have you thrown in jail for murder", she growled threateningly.

Somewhere in the background, Lafiel was torn between trying to stop this before it got further and not wanting to be seen as opposing Pandora.

"Not unless you want your dear parents to know that their little girl lied to them for months on end", he continued his blackmail attempt, "imagine what they might think when they learn that you lied about sleeping with two guys and two Faunus. _What reason could she have to hide her teammates?_ "

Pandora's cheeks flamed at the insinuation, but she refused to be blackmailed.

"No one will believe you in jail", she countered.

Her refusal to submit to his blackmail seemed to throw him off for a bit. Pandora noted his eyes running from his bed to the window to the both of them and to the door, before settling back on them with a furious expression in them. She now understood why Lafiel had said that he had scared her.

"I _saved_ you", he said with an accusatory finger pointed straight at Lafiel.

"You _killed_ someone in cold blood", Pandora protested.

"I don't want to hear that from you!", he whirled on her, "while you were sobbing uselessly in the grass, _I_ had to make a choice to kill someone or let Lafiel die. Had I not shot him when I did, he would have killed her right then and there."

"You just lied!", Lafiel suddenly interrupted.

Yonsa was taken aback at that for a moment, before he regained himself, "all of you would have been dead had I not acted as I did."

Lafiel didn't react to that.

"You could have shot to disarm", Pandora protested weakly, still rattled by the accusation and reminder of her own ineptitude.

"You know what? I am starting to regret that I even interfered at all", he said coldly.

Slap!

Pandora had never slapped someone before. It stung her hand more than she cared to admit, and it had left a finely defined red mark on Yonsa's cheek that had to sting equally hard, if not worse.

Yonsa was surprised at having been slapped initially, but when he snapped out of it, the surprise was replaced by a murderous glare directed straight at her. His knuckles turned white as he strengthened his grip on the spear.

Pandora reflexively activated her aura and flexed her joints in preparation for a fight. If he thought she would go down that easily, he had another thing coming.

Abruptly, he broke eye contact and, still fuming, stomped towards his bed. The sudden interruption caught her completely by surprise, but she would not let her guard down near him. Not after that look.

"What are you doing?", she demanded to know as he fished out a fully ready backpack from behind his bed.

When he didn't answer, but instead just slung it over his shoulder and stomped towards the door, she blocked his way.

"Stop when I'm talking to you", she demanded and dug her heels in. As the physically weakest of their group, he would not be getting past her.

To her utter surprise, he pushed her aside with a force that he had never shown before. If not for the beds, she would have tripped and fallen to the floor.

"Where are you going?", Pandora heard Lafiel ask in a half concerned and half frightened voice.

"Does it matter?", he answered snidely, just as he slammed the door behind him.

* * *

So yeah, things are not getting any better for Team LPYS, but there is light at the end and a puropse to the journey.


	10. an end to beginnings

So, this took longer than usual to write, but in the meantime, I have gotten the basic structure for a couple of other chapters down.

* * *

 **An end to beginnings**

 **Lafiel**  
Beep, beep, beep.

The sound of the alarm broke Lafiel out of her dream. It had been a good dream, she remembered. She couldn't exactly remember why had it been good, and could only remember snippets of it now, but merely knowing that it had been good was enough for her to yearn to go back to it again.

Beep, beep, beep, the alarm continued to sound. Rustling sounds in the other beds told her that the others were stirring too. Blearily, she opened her eyes and looked at the nightstand between her and Pandora, where beeping clock showed 7:01 on its digital display.

With a groan, she reached out to turn it off, wishing that she could have remained in that dream for just a little longer. It wasn't to be though. Not if they wanted breakfast before classes. Sitting up, she looked to the other beds.

Pandora had already risen in her yellow and black pyjamas and was busy collecting the supplies for a morning shower. On the other side of the room, Seishin was still fully covered by the red covers, except for a large arm that was blindly fumbling for the clothes that he had laid out the night before.

Turning her gaze slightly, she saw that Yonsa's bed was empty, except for the packed backpack leaning against it, but that was no surprise by now. Even after returning to Beacon the night before the Winter Break ended, he had made an effort to avoid them as much as possible. That included getting up before and going to bed later than them.

Lafiel didn't know how he had managed to persevere through it for the past three weeks, but she doubted that it was good for him. After all, she had once found him napping while holed up in a dark closet in a remote area of the library.

Sighing, she got up herself and started getting ready for the day. Half an hour later, they were all ready to go get some breakfast. The dining hall was crowded by students, some still only half awake, trying to find places to sit or leaving for classes.

The group of three managed to find a place to sit and snatch some food from the platters. Pandora mostly chose fruits and dairy products, while Seishin went for a giant bowl of oatmeal with raisins generously sprinkled atop of it. Lafiel herself chose to eat some fruits with honey-covered bread, slices of roasted bacon and eggs.

As they ate, she chatted a little with Team APLE beside them. Lucia was cordial enough, though Lafiel did occasionally catch her eying the empty spot next to Seishin. It was just another reminder that their team's feud was no private matter anymore.

Even if their first mission had not propelled them to celebrity status amongst the first years, Team LPYS would have still been high on the watch list due to its members. Pandora was undefeated in 1-v-1, with Lafiel also ranking quite well, if she was to say so herself, and nobody could miss Seishin in a crowd or best him in strength. Even Yonsa was well above the curve.

All that visibility did however come with the drawback that it hardly took more than a few days after the Winter Break before the team's disarray was commonly known. A large part of that was due to Yonsa's behaviour after he came back.

After having been gone for two whole weeks with his Scroll turned off and neither Lafiel nor Seishin able to find any trace of him within Vale City, he just suddenly popped right back in with no explanation. When they had asked him where he had been, he had merely looked at them with contempt, echoed that it didn't matter and refused to speak more of it.

Aside from just avoiding them when possible, he had also almost stopped all communications with them altogether. The only exceptions seemed to be when they were doing group exercises that required him speaking to them, and even then, it was clearly done with as few words as he could get away with.

If Lafiel had thought that he was a man of few words before, it paled in comparison to now. He wouldn't even respond to everyday pleasantries, and the one time she had tried bringing up their fallout, he had left in the middle of her sentence.

It had made her worried that he might have meant what he had said back then. She didn't think he had, but…she wasn't sure, and that thought scared her more than she would like to admit.

The silent treatment, and the awkwardness that it brought, was worsened since whenever they were required to be in the same room for something, he would sit with them. Well, near them might be more accurate.

"Still no progress on that front?", Lucia asked cautiously.

Lafiel realized that she had been staring at the empty spot and gently shook her head, "none."

"I know you don't like it, but could you at least tell me what is wrong?", Lucia asked with her curiosity showing through her concern, "I mean, it has been three weeks already. How can anyone hold a grudge that cuts off his only friends for so long? Whatever you guys did, it couldn't have been _that_ bad."

"He is the one that-", Pandora managed to snarl, before a warning look from Lafiel got her to shut up. They had agreed not to turn this into a public spectacle.

"We're working on it", Lafiel answered Lucia diplomatically.

Lucia nodded in acceptance that nothing more would be said about that, but could not hide that she looked like she had gotten more out of Pandora's brief outburst than Lafiel would have liked. Lafiel could only wonder at how long and in how many versions the outburst would be in before the entire school had heard. Lucia was many things, but being good at keeping a juicy piece of information secret was not one of them.

Still, Lucia's question did get Lafiel thinking. Was that how others perceived the situation too? When she thought of it, it was true that when looking from the outside, it truly did look like he was the one that was distancing himself from them, which was more indicative of a victim than an offender.

Add to that that he was still technically doing his share of their group work, and Lafiel could quickly begin to see how others would perceive a permanent break with nothing else to go on. Sighing, she knew that it was just another reason to try and mend things with Yonsa sooner rather than later.

Dejected by where the conversation had gone, she ate a little more from her tray, before gathering it up and leaving for Port's class, with Seishin and Pandora following her example.

"Oh yeah, due to the drama, I forgot to tell you", Pandora cheerfully said as they walked, "when I was home, I told my parents about our team and how we lived. Even showed them this picture too."

A Scroll with a picture in full screen was shoved into Lafiel's face. The picture showed all four of them, as they had looked when their team photo had been taken at the initiation party. Lafiel didn't know if it was just her imagination playing tricks on her, but Yonsa seemed resigned even then. She hadn't really ever thought he looked like that before now.

"How did your parents take it?", Lafiel asked somewhat curious.

"Well, my father was a little concerned that I was rooming with two boys, but he said that he understood where I was coming from and that he trusted me", Pandora answered, before hesitating, "my mother…didn't look at it that way. She kind of suggested that I should have a room to myself, at the very least."

"How did you manage to convince her not to?", Lafiel questioned.

"My father managed to convince her that it would isolate me from the other students", Pandora said as they passed one of the janitors, who looked up from his work to nod in greeting to them, "in any case, I think that they have accepted that it has worked for me so far, so they should trust me to take care of myself."

"What about Yonsa and the mission?", Lafiel wondered. It didn't sound like she had explained that to them.

"I said that we ran into some unexpected difficulties during our first mission, but made it through them regardless", Pandora answered in a tone that suggested that she had not elaborated too much on those unexpected troubles, before continuing on in a less sure voice, "and regarding him, I didn't say anything about that. They shouldn't have to worry about such things."

Something in the way that she said it made Lafiel think that it was not just for their sake that she had omitted that piece of information.

Yonsa showed up just before the class began and sat beside Seishin without speaking a word to any of them. From his appearance, Lafiel guessed that he had either been in the library or gone jogging and then showered afterwards.

She could never be quite sure what he did during the times that he was not required to spend with them. She had followed him a few times, but she was fairly certain that there was no pattern to what he chose to do on any specific day.

One day, he might study in the library in the early morning, then spend the lunch break with them and retire to the shooting range for the evening. On another, he might start out jogging, go to the training room and train the spear, most often by himself, before finishing off with the library or something else.

At this point, she was fairly sure that whatever he did was whatever he felt like on that day, as long as it didn't involve them in any way shape or form.

"And so, the beast and I looked into each other's eyes. Neither flinching nor wavering", Prof. Port droned on in the background.

Beside her, Pandora was taking notes and Seishin was trying very hard not to fall asleep. Yonsa had that glazed look that she had seen during his watch on the first day of the mission, and to her surprise, the headset was connected to his left ear. The one facing away from the teacher.

Occasionally, she would catch him typing a few commands into his Scroll, but he would otherwise look like he was paying attention, at least from the outside.

"Ahem, Ms. Lamprose", Prof. Port suddenly interrupted class, "is there a Ms. Lamprose present?"

"I'm here!", Lafiel announced and raised her hand.

"Yes, there you are, Ms. Lamprose", Prof. Port acknowledged, "Professor Ozpin wishes to speak with your team. Please report to his office immediately."

"Yes sir", Lafiel acknowledged and got up with a confused glance at her teammates.

Why did the headmaster want to see them? They hadn't done anything of note lately that she could think of, unless Yonsa had done something in his free time. Lafiel rejected that idea quickly. What if Pandora's parents _had_ decided to take a more active role in her education?

A worried glance at Pandora as they walked down the halls had the other girl slightly shaking her head, though Lafiel guessed that the other girl had at least thought the thought herself too. The rejection of that possibility made Lafiel cast another glance over her shoulder at Yonsa, who was walking two steps behind the rest of them.

It was like having one of the Atlas androids for a teammate.

When they got to Ozpin's office, he was sitting behind his desk with Ms. Goodwitch standing to his left. The desk had a glass surface and four large mechanical legs holding it up, and in front of it were four wooden chairs.

"Welcome students", he greeted warmly and put down his black tablet Scroll, "have a seat."

As they took their seats, Ozpin continued, "I am sure that you must be wondering why I called you here in the middle of class. It has come to my attention that your team has suffered a…disruption, and that this has prevented you from functioning as a team."

"If I may ask, Professor, do you do this for all teams?", Pandora asked politely.

"If I have time, I try to help all my students", he said and took a sip of coffee, "however, given the prominence of your team, I felt compelled to intervene more directly in this matter since you appeared to not be able to solve it on your own."

"I don't see a reason to complain. The team has fulfilled all requirements put before it so far", Yonsa surprisingly objected.

"And you do not believe that anything has been missing for the last three weeks, Mr. Chén Zhuáng De?", Ozpin asked neutrally.

"I have performed all duties required of me during the group exercises", Yonsa defended, as if Ozpin's words had been a direct attack on his person.

 _Duties. Is that what he considers us as now?_ , Lafiel thought and then remembered what he had said to her that dark night so long ago, _or has it always been like this?_

"I see", Ozpin said and turned to the others, "and how do you feel about this?"

"He is the problem! I cannot trust someone that might use personal information as blackmail material against his own teammates", Pandora accused.

"Well, I wouldn't have had to if _someone_ had just been able to keep her mouth shut!", Yonsa growled right back, "I saved her life, and she could not even do this one little thing!"

"Enough!", Ozpin interrupted with a firm voice, before directing his attention to Lafiel, "Ms. Lamprose, given the direction that this discussion has taken, I would like to know what piece of information that is being talked about."

Lafiel swallowed and looked at Yonsa, who was sending her warning looks, before she told Ozpin that the night after their encounter with the bandits, she had found out that Yonsa had taken the initial shot with the intention of killing.

"Very good, Ms. Lamprose", Ozpin acknowledged her without as much as blinking at what he had been told, "and I suppose that you did not trust your teammates enough to reveal this information to them, Mr. Chén Zhuáng De?"

Yonsa seemed just as surprised that no hesitation seemed to have been given to the information, as he was suddenly being asked such a question.

"Given how this has turned out", he eventually responded with a sweeping hand covering all of them, "I would say that I was justified in not wanting it to be found out."

"Hmm, it is as I feared from Ms. Argonfield's report then", Ozpin sighed, "given the state of disarray that this team is suffering, I am afraid that I must suspend you from the list of teams going to Atlas next year for the Vytal Festival."

"What!? But you can't!", Pandora objected more forcefully than before, "one person's actions shouldn't impact the entire team in this way!"

Lafiel knew that Pandora was competitive, but she had not expected her to yell at their headmaster like that. Even if they were excluded next year, they still had the 39th Festival in Mistral.

"But I can. No other school deserves to lay witness to this level of disarray in one of my teams", Ozpin said calmly but firmly, "and I will include the one after that as well if your team does not show improvement."

"But can we not kick him from the team then?", Pandora suggested, "he doesn't want to be with us anyway, so that way, the team's issues are solved and everyone are happy."

"I am afraid that that would defeat the purpose of this lesson, Ms. Azura", Ozpin said in a firm voice and with a critical look, which made Pandora sit down like a child getting scolded. He then picked up the black Scroll from his desk, "besides, as Ms. Argonfield's report describes, your team performed well below expectations during your first mission."

"But she said we did well?", Lafiel pointed out confused.

"Yes, as individuals, each of you performed admirably considering the trials put before you", Ozpin said with a glance at the Scroll, "however, as a team, I am afraid that there is much left to be desired. During the bandit engagement, your formation fell apart the moment pressure was applied to it, and before that, each of you acted as individuals with little to no coordination."

"I did what I was assigned to do", Yonsa pointed out.

Ozpin eyed him for a little bit, seemingly considering something, before he said, "the report indicates that when given free rein, you gave little concern to your allies and even less thought of actively cooperating with them. Given the way that you have spoken thus far, I am inclined to believe that."

Ozpin then cocked his head slightly as he looked at Yonsa, "you were a courier in Anima before coming here, correct?"

"…I was", Yonsa agreed nervously.

"I suspected as much from your transcript. Dreadful business, that", Ozpin said with a rueful nod.

Yonsa looked like he was about to interrupt him with an angry retort, but a single look from Ozpin silenced him.

"And would I be correct in assuming that you would not care if your team was excluded from both Vytal Festivals?", Ozpin continued.

"I would not actively oppose it or otherwise do things that might hamper their ability to compete", Yonsa replied without answering the question.

"You see yourself apart from them. Not an uncommon trait", Ozpin commented.

"I do my duties", Yonsa reiterated.

"Your duties?", Ozpin said with a small chuckle, "Mr. Chén Zhuáng De, being a Huntsman is about more than simply doing ones duty. It is about defending those cannot do so themselves, it is about inspiring hope in the populace and it is about being able to cooperate and work with others.

Unless you truly understand this, there is no place for you at my school. You can enrol in the Atlas army, should they accept you, or go back to Anima and continue your lonesome existence until your luck runs out one day."

Yonsa was about to interject, when Ozpin cut him off again, "however, I am not unreasonable. You will have until the list for teams going to Atlas will be completed next semester to show improvements. If this does not happen, you will be asked to leave the school premises and your team will be banned from all future Vytal Festivals. As an addition to this, significant improvements in the overall teamwork will also allow the entire team to be reinstated as amongst those considered for the Vytal Festival."

Before Pandora could make another objection, Ozpin levelled a gaze at all of them, "I believe that this will be a good life lesson for all of you. Either you all improve, or you all fail. You are dismissed."

As Lafiel stood up and began to leave, Ozpin's voice came out from behind her, "and Ms. Lamprose, I would prefer not to have this discussion again. Please make sure to take your leadership responsibilities seriously this time."

So admonished, Lafiel turned back to join her teammates just as Ozpin lifted the coffee mug to lips once more with the hints of a small smirk hiding behind it.

Instead of returning to class, they decided to head back to the dorm room and figure out what to do from now on. The walk there was covered in awkward silence, but it was better than opening this can of worms in the middle of a hallway.

"I think we need to align our expectations before proceeding any further", Lafiel said as she closed the door behind her, "if we can't even align our goals, then any efforts made will be wasted."

"I agree", Seishin supported her with a nod, "frustrations are bound to arise if our goalposts are on different scales."

"I will not apologizing for what I did", Yonsa disrupted the flow, "it was necessary, and none of you would be here to argue about it had I not done so."

"I am not talking about something as concrete as that", Lafiel quickly tried to defuse the situation before it could escalate, "I am talking about what we want to eventually achieve with this team."

"Oh…then I guess that is fine", Yonsa said demurely and plopped down on his bed.

Lafiel looked to Pandora, who nodded as well. Good. At least they could all agree to discuss what to agree on.

"With everyone agreeing to this, I think that we should aim to enter the Vytal Festival next year", Lafiel continued, "I believe that this is a reasonable goal, since Professor Ozpin said that we only needed to show significant improvements, I think that this is within reach."

"I agree that that should be our goal", Pandora concurred.

"Yonsa?", Lafiel looked to him.

"I am less certain that I'll be able to complete my own goals in time, much less have time to work on any group goal", he admitted.

"But it didn't sound that hard to do? The cooperation thing is something that we will be working on together anyway", Lafiel said to encourage him.

"Yeah, I don't know what he actually wants of me, so…", Yonsa said, "defending the weak, inspiring hope, etc. I don't see how simply doing the bloody job should not be enough for those things. If I take a contract as a Huntsman, it is obviously because someone couldn't do it themselves, meaning that the mere act of taking and doing the contract should satisfy the first two, and I am perfectly capable of the latter."

At Pandora's snort, he elaborated, "when have I not performed what was expected of me in this team? Put a task before me, within reason, and I will do my part to solve it."

"It is probably that contractual thinking that he wants you to change", Lafiel commented, "after all, a team isn't supposed to have to send in a formal request every time something unexpected happens. As a Huntsmen team, we need to be able to put our trust in you without wondering whether this might exceed some unspoken contract."

"When do you _not_ need to wonder whether any request infringes upon an unspoken contract?", Yonsa countered, "you cannot just go ahead and make a completely unreasonable request and then expect it to be followed just like that."

"Well no, but anyone close enough for that level of trust would know what the limits were", Lafiel acceded, and then a thought struck her, "which is why we should start by getting to know one another."

"Weren't we still discussing goals?", Seishin pointed out.

"Yeah, but I think everyone agrees that we should aim to enter the 38th Vytal Festival since Yonsa's goals should hopefully be solved by working on the teamwork aspect with all of us", Lafiel said with a nervous look over at Yonsa.

"Sure", he conceded with a shrug.

"In order to even begin to trust you, I need to know what else you are hiding from us", Pandora said in a hostile tone towards Yonsa, "starting with whether you have any more dirt on any of us."

"And I wouldn't trust any of you to keep even something as simple as my birthday to yourselves for a mere two weeks, so how about no", Yonsa shot back in the same hostile tone.

"Calm down, both of you", Lafiel intervened, though the last shot hurt her more than she cared to admit.

"I am just starting the 'get to know him better' proposal that he accepted", Pandora argued.

"I didn't accept that. I only accepted the eventual goal of where we are going", Yonsa interjected.

"Enough!", Lafiel shouted, "if we are to ever get anywhere, then we need to know that _everyone_ is willing to put in the effort required."

"I already told you that I was willing to do whatever task you appointed me within reason", Yonsa argued.

"Then start by unpacking your backpack", Lafiel said with a nod towards the item, "if you really want us to trust that you won't just run away at any moment, then unpack it right here and now."

Yonsa looked surprised at her request. His eyes darted from hers to the item in question and then momentarily to the door. She really wished that she had not seen the last bit, and she really didn't want to point out that with the deadline set in stone, there should be no need for him to make a hasty exit.

Finally, he nodded and said that he would begin unpacking when they were done talking.

"So what do we do now?", Seishin asked the room.

"I still think that getting to know each other better is necessary if we are to make any improvements as a team", Lafiel reiterated her opinion, " _but_ we cannot just try to force it all out right now, so I propose that for an hour each day, we return to this dorm room and take turns asking each other questions. We could start today's session now."

"Alright, I'll start then. Yonsa, where were you during the Winter Break?", Pandora quickly said.

"I was at none of your business", Yonsa growled back.

"We obviously need to lay out some ground rules", Lafiel loudly interjected, "first and foremost. I think that if a person does not want to answer a question, they should be allowed to pass it for another. That way, we don't have to worry about someone lying to protect a sensitive issue. Oh, and we should make it so that no person can be asked twice until everyone has already been asked once and that the person asking cannot be asked back by the person answering."

"But wouldn't it defeat the purpose if _someone_ is just able to pass all the important questions", Pandora objected.

"No, if this is to succeed, then we cannot force anyone to share something that they don't want to.", Lafiel argued, "trust is a two-way street, so we have to try and meet in the middle. Is everyone okay with this?"

Seishin agreed immediately, Pandora hesitated a little with a suspicious look towards Yonsa, but agreed nonetheless, and Yonsa asked her to confirm that you could pass as many times as you would like and that nothing said would leave the room without the owner's explicit permission, before agreeing as well.

"Good, then I will start", Lafiel said happy at finally getting somewhere, "Yonsa, when _is_ your birthday?"

Yonsa looked at her with a cocked eyebrow and an expression that said that he was not sure whether she was joking or not. She had to admit that it was a bit odd to ask this question considering it was what he had used as an example earlier, but it would be a good easy question to get going with and show that he was willing to cooperate.

"About a month ago", he eventually answered after determining that she was not joking.

"During the Winter Break?", Lafiel exclaimed, "why didn't you tell us?"

"I was kind of elsewhere at the time", he said with a sarcastic undertone.

"I meant before…that", Lafiel clarified.

"Because it didn't matter", Yonsa said with a shrug, "but it is my turn now. Seishin, when is your birthday."

"In two months", Seishin answered and quickly asked Lafiel the same. Hers was in the summer, as was Pandora's, when she got the question.

"Yonsa, what is your Semblance?", Pandora asked a little too pointedly.

"Pass", Yonsa said without hesitation.

Pandora looked as if she wanted to object, but a look from Lafiel silenced her objections. She then looked contemplative for a moment, before asking how he had pushed her aside before the Winter Break. When he passed on that as well, she hesitated only a moment before asking if he was holding back during their training sessions.

Another pass, and Lafiel was beginning to see trouble brewing in how this was going. She quickly intervened to remind Pandora that this was supposed to be done in good faith, after which she asked a more reasonable question about who had trained him in using the spear.

Answering that no one person had, Yonsa asked Lafiel a fairly tame question about whether she had any siblings. She answered that she had none, and then proceeded to ask Seishin how many he had all in all. She had met a few of them when she had picked him up to search for Yonsa during the Winter Break, but did not know if it was all of them.

Seishin replied that he only had the two younger ones that she had seen, before reiterating the question to Pandora, who was an only child. When it became his turn, Yonsa answered that he had had siblings, and did not speak more of it.

Despite the tense atmosphere, they all continued until it was eventually decided that this was to be the last round. When it became Lafiel's turn to ask, she knew what she wanted to ask, but not whether she wanted to know the answer.

"Yonsa, when you said that you were starting to regret interfering, did you mean it?", Lafiel eventually worked up the courage to ask, _do you regret saving my life?_

Yonsa was visibly uncomfortable at having been asked the question, which was made none the better by Pandora and Seishin both leaning in to hear his question. His eyes briefly darted to the door again.

"Pass", he rejected the question. A part of her had known that he would likely do that.

"You can't pass on something like this!", Pandora objected.

"No, it is alright", Lafiel countered.

"But he won't even say if he regrets letting you live", Pandora pointed out, "what are we to think of that?"

Silently, Lafiel agreed with her, but also knew that there was only one true answer to the question that would satisfy everyone. Had he said yes, their progress would likely have been set back quite a bit, if not destroyed for good, and had he said no and lied about it, she would have known. This way, there was at least the possibility of him not regretting it.

"If he doesn't want to answer, then he is allowed not to", Lafiel said with a monotone voice, "it was the basis on which we agreed to do this."

"But still…", Pandora said annoyed.

Lafiel tried to move everything along with a simpler more neutral question, which he did answer, but the mood for continuing this game had disappeared entirely. As soon as possible, Yonsa was out of the door and they would not see him again until later that evening.

Still, at least they were trying to improve.

* * *

This will be the last of the introduction chapters. From here on out, the stories told may not come in a chronological order, but I will be sure to inform you of when it takes place(when I eventually stop writing on it, I will post an epilogue chapter and order them in chronological order for ease of use). On the other hand, we are already 40k and seven chapters in and have only just gone past the last of the setup. I know it didn't end all well and good, but that is for later chapters to explore more. Frankly, at this point, I will welcome the lighter chapters I am to write next(after I have finished writing the epilogue chapter).


	11. A date for two

Well, long time no see. This piece of fluff takes place during the latter half of their second year. Enjoy.

* * *

 **A date for two**

 **Yonsa  
** Yonsa had his crosshairs aimed right between Pandora's shoulder blades. Even through her red sheer shrug and black dress, he could see her shoulders work as she lifted a glass of wine to her lips. He would be lying if he said that she didn't look good in it.

Across from her, in the little restaurant by the side of the road, a man in a light blue and white suit sat with his own meal and drinks. Abruptly, he laughed at something said.

"I kind of wish that we could hear what they are saying", Lafiel said from beside him.

"I doubt that she would appreciate it if you did", Yonsa replied, "looking in on her is one thing, but listening to her conversations is another entirely. Especially if she actually ends up liking him."

"She isn't going to like him after just one date", Lafiel said confidently, "least of all not one that she was forced on."

"If she didn't want to, she shouldn't have made that bet then", Yonsa commented.

"How were we supposed to know that we would get such an opponent that early on", Lafiel said exasperated. The loss in Atlas evidently still fresh in her memory.

Yonsa lowered his scope, detached as it was from his spear, and looked at Lafiel beside him. She was sitting halfway across the stone railing with her binoculars pressed tightly to her face. Nervous that she might fall from the roof, he pulled slightly on her navy blue jacket until she noticed what he wanted and edged back a little.

With her back on the safe side of the railing, he looked at his scope again, wondering if he had damaged it when he took it off the spear. He didn't think it had been meant to do that, but he also didn't think that dragging his spear through the streets of Vale would be considered appropriate.

Returning his attention to the two in the restaurant, he could not help but feel hungry at seeing their delicious meals right there. It reminded him that he had not had anything to eat since they left Beacon earlier that day.

He was still somewhat grumpy about that. He could have used this night for plenty of things more useful than spying on Pandora's date, but Lafiel and Seishin had been quite adamant that it was a team assignment.

Pandora was a big girl. She could take care of herself on something as simple as a date, even if it was with _him_.

A creak from behind told him that someone was coming up the trapdoor.

"Dinner is ready. I brought you yours", came Seishin's voice from behind.

 _Finally_ , Yonsa thought as he was handed a plate of some steaming hot creamy pasta-based dish.

"Only two?", Lafiel commented as she was handed hers.

"Yeah, I'll be eating downstairs", Seishin answered, "mom would kill me if I didn't eat with them when I am finally home again. Besides, if I stayed up here, Cyan would end up crawling all over all of us."

Yonsa had seen the youngest sibling only briefly when they had entered the house, but the moment that Seishin had come in view, the boy had been crawling all over him like a monkey in a tree. Suddenly, his patience back in Haulton had made a whole lot more sense.

As Seishin went back to the trapdoor, he had to push down the head of the oldest of his siblings before he could get down himself.

"I want one", Lafiel surprised him by saying with a longing gaze at the closed trapdoor.

"I think Mrs. Kuma might take offense if you tried to take one of them", Yonsa told her.

"No, not one of them", Lafiel corrected him with a wry smile, "a sibling of my own."

"Not much I can do for you in that department", Yonsa said, "you would have to take that up with your parents."

"I have", she said sadly, "they…tried, for a number of years before giving up."

"Oh", Yonsa didn't really know how to respond to that, "then are you..?"

"No, I'm theirs", Lafiel quickly corrected his assumption, "but…they said that even that was a small miracle."

"Sorry and congratulations, I guess?", Yonsa tried. He had never been that good at dealing with these things. The older couriers had always just told him to suck it up and deal with it without bothering them.

"Congratulations?", Lafiel said confused.

"Yeah, that you were born at all", Yonsa elaborated, "no matter what happens later, you wouldn't have been here to complain if you had never been born. Anything after that can be handled as it comes."

"I suppose that is one way of looking at it", Lafiel mused, "I didn't know you had thought this deeply about it."

"I've not. I just don't want to die", Yonsa curtly said and dug into his food. He wasn't exactly sure if he should take that last bit as an insult or a compliment.

The food tasted pretty good, though it was a little soft compared to what Yonsa was used to eating. Then again, the combination of the soft pastas and the creamy sauce made it easier to wolf down quickly without being worried about choking on something.

As his fork hit the empty plate, he turned and half expected Lafiel to look at him with a mixture of awe and disquiet as she still sat there with her plate not even half done, but all he saw instead was her licking the last bit of sauce off of her fork.

"What?", she said with a raised eyebrow, "we don't have all evening to eat."

As she turned and put the binoculars back to her face, Yonsa could not help but stare at the slight swishing of her tail with a dumb expression on his face.

 _Right, wolf Faunus_ , he thought dazzled as he too turned back to spy at the date below.

Pandora had just been handed some coffee and a piece of chocolate cake by a waiter in black and white. Her date sat with a piece of what looked like pie and a similar cup of coffee next to him. He looked like he was trying some small talk, but judging by her clearly asking the waiter for the check, it was not working.

With the date seemingly about to wrap up, Yonsa shifted his focus to the lone person sitting a few tables away. You could hardly recognize him outside his regular clothes, but he looked just as happy that the date was about to over as Yonsa felt. It had to be hard working those hours.

Briefly, Yonsa wondered what he would report back to Pandora's parents, but then decided that it didn't really concern him anyhow. As long as they didn't think any of them were a threat to their daughter's wellbeing, he guessed that they were willing to keep a hands-off approach towards her teammates.

"He just put something in her coffee", Lafiel said at the same time as the bodyguard gave a small twitch of his head.

Nearly instantly, Yonsa's crosshairs were back on Pandora's table. She was gone for whatever reason and her date looked as if nothing had ever been amiss.

"Sure?", he asked.

"Yeah, when she left for the ladies' room, he looked around briefly to check if anyone was looking, before he slipped something in there", Lafiel explained, "I'm texting Pandora now."

When Pandora returned from the bathroom, she didn't look like someone had just told what had happened, but when she got to the table, she didn't immediately sit down. Instead, she lightly lifted her coffee cup and emptied it over her date, ruining his light blue and white suit, before turning on her heels and walking away.

Her date was furious and was about to yell and possibly grab her arm, when his eyes widened as he spotted a small red dot dancing across his hand. With a scream, he threw himself to the floor. Pandora's bodyguard was already on the move by then and had reached him before he could get up again.

"I wouldn't want to be in his shoes after this", Yonsa commented with a grin as he lowered the scope and laser pointer.

Lafiel looked at him with a mix of amusement and curiosity, "when did you- never mind."

With the date officially over, Yonsa guessed that they would be getting back to Beacon soon as well. It was just as well, as they had classes early the next morning.

Lafiel looked at him with a speculative look that usually bode ill for him, before she, in an amused voice, said, "want to explore Vale for a bit longer?"

He looked at her suspiciously and noted that neither of them were exactly dressed for going clubbing. Her navy blue jacket might fly on the street, but he knew that she had her school uniform underneath, as had he beneath his dusty brown cloak.

"We have classes at 8:00", he commented instead of answering.

"Yeah, with Port. He won't notice if we sleep through them", she lightly said, "come one, don't be such a downer. You haven't even been to Vale City in all our time at Beacon. It would be good to show you around the place."

"You aren't from around here", he pointed out.

"No, but Seishin is, and it ought to cheer up Pandora too", she answered unconcerned, "so if you don't have any further questions, let's get going already."

And with that, she dragged him off the roof and into the streets of Vale.

* * *

Well, this turned out shorter than I had thought at first. Then again, considering the length that the epilogue ended up with, I should be glad to have this one out sooner.

After this, I will have to make up my mind on what to write on next. There is the mission in Mistral, the end of the school year and the Atlas and Mistral Vytal festival arcs, though it is vital that Atlas is releashed before Mistral. So many choices...


	12. Family visits

So, I haven't been updating for quite a while now. The good news is that I have an entire arc ready to go. I just need to proofread them and then upload them. Bad news is that I likely won't have time to write anything more for a month or so. My thesis is almost due, and as it stands now, I am hoping that I get the results that I expect in time for me to have two days to process them and write them into my final report.

Anyway, enjoy the first part of the summer arc.

* * *

 **Family visits**

 **Lafiel  
** Lafiel tapped her Scroll furiously, watching as her opponent's health bar dropped to zero.

"I win, yet again", she announced with a smirk.

Sitting on his bed opposite from her, Yonsa gave her a glare, but nevertheless still sent the rematch request. With another smirk, she accepted the request and watched as the two fighters lined up again with full health bars.

Yonsa tried using his sword's longer reach to strike at her early on, before retreating back again. It was a tactic that she had noticed him using quite often, probably due to personal habit, and no matter how often she beat him, he still tried to make the tactic work.

Well, at least he had improved since Seishin had introduced them to the game. It had taken three straight victories of her tricking him into using his slow-building super move prematurely before he had caught on to that.

"You should use more of your character's special close combat skills. Otherwise, Lafiel is going to know what you will do every time", Pandora advised from her bed.

Yonsa grunted that he had heard, but did not change tactics at all. Lafiel could understand the sentiment. Pandora may be good at giving out strategies for the game in general, but she was awful at implementing them herself.

Seemingly by accident, Yonsa made his character do a spinning move that left him disoriented and ripe for Lafiel's Julia to move in and score some easy damage. She backed away again before he had time to get up and return the favour.

"Be careful with his special moves. If you don't time them right, they will leave you exposed", Seishin advised belatedly, "same with the helicopter move. If you don't time it right, it will leave you open to attack."

Yonsa grunted again and did not use the move more after that. Lafiel was not surprised at that. After he had learned not to take her bait with the super moves, he had moved away from them entirely. He had recently begun trying incorporating some of them again, but it was clear to Lafiel that he shied away from moves that he had had bad experiences with.

"Want me to take over?", Seishin asked Yonsa as he lost yet another round.

"No!", Yonsa and Lafiel both said at the same time.

With Pandora determined to avoid the game at all costs, there were only Lafiel, Yonsa and Seishin left to play it. Yonsa wasn't particularly good at the game, but he did give her some challenge, as opposed to Pandora. If Seishin took over, it would just turn into a massacre of Julias.

Seishin looked a bit annoyed at that, which made Lafiel regret the outburst. He was the one that had introduced them to the game, and now neither of them wanted to play it with him.

"You can have mine after this match", Lafiel offered, which brought a smile to the giant of a man's face.

"Thanks, but I would like to play against you too before your parents arrive", Seishin said, "wouldn't do to leave you thinking too highly of yourself."

Strangely, this game was one of the few things where Seishin took this level of pride in his abilities.

"They aren't due for another two days", Lafiel reminded him, "and I plan on spending a week in Vale showing them around, so I am sure that you will have time to beat my ass. If anything, it should be Yonsa and Pandora that you should be trying to pick a fight with. Yonsa is leaving tomorrow and Pandora is flying back to Mistral in….five days?"

"Six", Pandora corrected, "and I will not be up for any more matches before that."

"Yonsa doesn't need to be taken down a peg or two. He knows that he stands no chance against me", Seishin boasted, "you on the other hand, you might begin to think that you have a chance after all these victories."

Lafiel groaned at that, which Yonsa immediately used to sneak in an attack for some extra damage.

"Hey, dirty trick", Lafiel commented just as a series of knocks rapped across their door.

"I'll get it", Pandora said and got up from her bed to open the door.

Lafiel was actually in doubt about whether she might lose this one. That sneak attack had cost her a lot of HP. To compensate, she switched to a more defensive strategy and tried to goad Yonsa into committing too much too early.

"Mother, father!? What are you doing here?", Pandora's voice echoed from the door.

Crash!

Lafiel's head snapped up at the noise, where she saw Yonsa hugging the floor besides his bed. In the doorway, Pandora's parents where poking their heads through the door to see what the commotion had been about.

Her mother had black hair that had been tied up in a bun at the back of her head. Her eyes were blue like Pandora's, and her green and golden dress seemed softer and more expensive than anything Lafiel had ever seen.

Pandora's father, on the other hand, had grey eyes and black hair that had stripes of grey in it. A thin strip of black facial hair spanned from above his lips and down to his chin. He wore a black and grey striped suit with a light grey vest underneath and a black tie.

"What was that noise?", Pandora's father asked.

Lafiel looked at Yonsa's splayed out form on the ground and out of sight from the door, and she did not doubt that if the window had been open, he would have jumped out that way. Though they had come to an understanding after the ultimatum from Prof. Ozpin, Yonsa didn't know what Pandora might have told her parents about the whole ordeal.

Just as Pandora seemed about to answer, she intercepted her and said, "just noises from a game", which was accompanied by a pleading look at Pandora. She understood and let them in, with Lafiel and Seishin moving closer to the door.

"You must be Ms. Lamprose", Pandora's father said and extended his hand to her, "we have heard of you, but this is the first time that we get to see you in person. Your tail looks…bigger than the picture."

"George!", Mrs. Azura said in accusatory tone.

"It's alright, I don't mind", Lafiel quickly tried to smooth it over and shake his hand, but something in Mrs. Azura's eyes told her that it had not been the comment that provoked the outburst.

Lafiel was saved when a second round of knocks could be heard on the door. Being the closest to it, Pandora once more opened it wide to see another two people outside it. A man with brown eyes, red hair and fox ears sticking out of his head stood next to a woman in a long coat with small antlers going back through her blonde hair.

"Mom, dad!", Lafiel shouted jubilantly and ran to envelop them in a hug, "I thought you weren't supposed to be here for another two days?"

"The boat travelled faster than they expected", her mother explained and looked to the other set of parents, "I don't believe we have been introduced. We are Lafiel's parents, Flynn and Aileen Lamprose."

"George Azura", Pandora's father said and stuck out his hand, "and this is my wife, Gin."

After the pleasantries had been exchanged, Lafiel's father looked across the room with an evaluating gaze. Pandora's parents did so as well, and did not seem impressed by what they saw. If Lafiel had known that they would come today, she would have cleaned up better.

"So this is the team that you wrote of", her father said and swept his eyes from Seishin and down to Pandora with his fox ears twitching slightly, "and I assume that the last one is the young man currently quivering on the floor behind his bed?"

Mr. and Mrs. Azura perked up at the last comment and all directed their attention to Yonsa's bed. Slowly, and with an air of humility that Lafiel had never seen in him before, Yonsa rose from behind his bed with a packed backpack in hand.

"I was just looking for the last things I needed to pack before leaving", he lied with a straight face and cautiously moved towards the door, "if you would excuse me, I have a train to catch."

With a small bow towards Pandora's parents, he grabbed Fate's Edge from the corner it was resting in and his cloak from the coat hanger near the door, before darting out of the room as quick as one could without running.

"…Well, that was something", Lafiel's father commented amused as the door closed, "why don't you show us around the school for a bit? I am sure that Mr. and Mrs. Azura would like to catch up with their daughter as well."

"Yes, this room is rather…cramped", Mrs. Azura commented, before she turned to Pandora, "I think we have quite a lot to discuss."

Pandora looked uncomfortable at that, but she was ushered out before Lafiel had much of a chance to say anything, even if she had known what to say. Instead, she waved goodbye to Seishin and led her parents through the school grounds.

"Care to explain what that scene earlier was about?", her mother asked curiously, "it certainly wasn't just him itching to catch a train. You told me that much."

Lafiel was confused for a moment at what she meant, before realizing that her mother must have seen her detect the lie. Unconsciously, she tucked her tail against her chest. Instead of looking back at them, she studiously viewed the greenery in the training area.

"It wasn't really anything. He just doesn't like meeting new people", she told them without looking back at them, knowing that it was only partly true. She didn't think that he particularly disliked meeting new people, but judging from his reaction when they had first met, she doubted that he liked it either.

"Oh, it seemed to me that he was hardly aware of our presence in the room", her father commented, "has he perhaps done something that would be considered…improper towards the young heiress?"

"What? No!", Lafiel said in a startled shout and turned to face her parents, "it's just, his…we have had some…issues regarding a mission that went awry, and we are trying to work it out."

"What issues?", her father demanded to know and tried to lock eyes with her.

Lafiel had been studiously trying not to look at her father's eyes until now, but when she lowered her head to look at the ground, he put his hand under her chin, raised it back up to meet his unwavering gaze and repeated, more strongly this time, "what issues?"

She looked into her father's brown eyes and without meaning to, she imagined a hole appearing in his chest, blood pouring out of it, and his eyes going lifeless. With a small cry, she wrenched her head from his gentle grip and looked back down with tears clouding her eyes.

"Flynn!", her mother yelled accusingly and enveloped her in a hug, whispering encouraging words in her ears.

"Did _he_ do this?", her father growled.

"No! A bandit, with eyes like yours, and he died right in front of me. His blood was on me! He would have killed me. It was supposed to be a simple mission. Our first mission", Lafiel tried to explain everything in a jumble.

"Oh", her father murmured stunned and joined in her envelopment.

They stayed like that for a while, ignoring any that passed them by. Lafiel could not remember when she had last been comforted by both her parents like this, and she did not want it to end, but eventually, she knew that it had to.

With a not insignificant bit of willpower, she freed herself from her parents' arms and wiped her eyes clear.

When it looked like she was ready to talk again, her father grunted a bit and then said, "still, something bugs me. Why would the young man fear Pandora's parents if a bandit attack was what caused this?"

Her mother gave him a reproachful look, but did not comment on it further, instead looking to Lafiel to see if she was willing to answer. Lafiel was hesitant to tell her parents anything of Yonsa since she did not know how her father might react if he learned what she suspected, or feared. And if Yonsa learned that she was telling others about his secrets, she might lose the little goodwill that they had managed to build over the last few months.

"Yonsa was the one that made the killing shot", she explained carefully, "afterwards, we had a falling out because he lied about knowing that it would be fatal. The headmaster had to step in to get us talking again."

"But he was the one that saved your life, correct?", her father asked gently, "so why would it come to that?"

"Our team had…has issues stemming from before the incident", she explained, hands combing through her tail, "it, and our bad handling of the fallout when we found out about the lie, was the straw that broke the camel's back."

Now that she had gotten this far, she might as well explain the whole thing. It felt like hours went by as she told them about his stubbornness, refusal to open himself up and the many secrets that he kept from them. Some, she left out for fear of what they might say and do.

She told them how, despite seemingly putting in an effort these last few months, he had still kept his distance on any topic that seemed to matter to him and how she felt that if they did not come together next semester, then it would be her fault as the team leader that failed to lead her team.

At the end of it all, she was hoarse from all the talking and they had to go buy a cafeteria to buy drinks and some ice cream for a snack. The sun was shining heavily down upon their little round table, with the umbrella doing little to give any shade.

A little away, near the forest's edge, Lafiel could see Pandora arguing with her parents. She did not know what they were arguing about, but since they actively kept away from others, she guessed that it was not something that they wanted strangers to know about.

"Have you considered that he may see the situation as him giving up things that he would rather not without getting anything in return?", her father eventually wondered, shaking her out of her reverie. There was no need to ask who he was referring to.

"I have answered as many questions, if not more, as him", Lafiel protested, "everything that he has done, I have followed up on and done more to boot."

"Yes, but from what you say of him, he may not consider it that way", her father explained, "if a Schnee loses a million Lien, it can mean less to them than a poor person losing a single one."

The suggestion had Lafiel wondering. It was true that during their sessions, he never really showed much interest in others' responses and he had never asked a hard question to any of them. Ever since the incident that broke up their first session, he had also tried to limit the chances that Lafiel had to ask questions of him to as few as possible, but she preferred not to think of that.

"But what should I do to dispel him of this notion?", Lafiel wondered, _and would I be willing to, even if I knew?_

"That, I do not know", her father answered, "he is your teammate and partner, so if anyone should have an idea of what gesture he might consider equivalent, it should be you."

Lafiel took another sip from her drink and thought it over. She thought that she might have an idea, but she didn't know if it would even work, and she didn't particularly like it either. Nor would her parents, she suspected.


	13. summer vacation

Alright, second part done with. Enjoy!

* * *

 **Summer vacation**

 **Lafiel  
** "No", Yonsa declared with finality and tried to walk away.

"Why not?", Lafiel asked annoyed at his outright refusal.

She had spent most of the day just convincing her parents to let her do this, and then most of the evening trying to find him. She was not going to let him get away with just dismissing her idea that easily.

"Because I do not want to", he answered in an equally annoyed voice.

"But I think that this would help build our teamwork", she argued.

Abruptly, he stopped and looked at her calculatingly. The sun was setting behind him and its rays got in Lafiel's eyes when she looked at him, so she moved around him, bringing her closer to the trees on the forest path.

"Is this a game to you?", he asked with suspicion, "have a little vacation trip to see how fortunate you have it and feel good about having walked a mile in someone else's shoes?"

"No!", she declared defiantly, "I really think this will help both of us in the long run. I had to cancel being with my family to do this."

She could see him mulling over what she had said. He didn't look happy about it. In fact, if she had to guess, she thought that he might be a little insulted by her suggestion. It was that inclination that she knew she would have to change if she hoped to integrate him fully into the team. He had to learn that she, at least, would not judge him for what he thought had been necessary to do to survive, and the best way to do that was to experience his circumstances for herself.

"Fine!", he finally obliged with a sigh, "but if you want to do this, you will have to follow my instructions."

"Alright!", she happily obliged, having already expected something along those lines. The look he gave her momentarily made her reconsider that decision.

"Firstly, you won't be coming with me", he stated with finality.

"But why?", she asked confused. The entire point of this had been to understand his world.

"Because if you want to have the _experience_ , then you can't have lifelines to help you along, and because I do not want to be burdened with you in one of the few times that I am capable of working", he explained snidely, "and on that note, I will be confiscating your Scroll, wallet and Fuchskrallen. You can have them back at the end of the summer, if you make it that long."

"Absolutely not!", she denied his demand, "why would I part with them?"

"Because I say so. Otherwise, you could always go back to your family", he answered, "I am sure that all of you would appreciate that more."

"No, I'll do it, but only if you tell me a good reason why I should", she refused to back down.

"How many do you think start out with quality weapons, money or a way to dial for help?", he asked her with a pointed look at Fate's Edge.

"None", she answered without having to think much about it, "…fine, I'll part with them, if it makes you happy."

"It doesn't, but you wanted the _experience_ , so I think it only fair that you should have it", he commented and looked around the woods, before his eyes fell on a fallen branch.

Abruptly, he trudged over to it and trimmed off the side branches with his spear, making it one long straight piece of wood. Upon nodding in satisfaction, he tossed it to Lafiel, who deftly caught it out of mid-air.

"Here is your weapon for the next two months", he declared with a smirk, "you already have training, so you are already ahead of most, but try not to use your aura unless you absolutely have to."

Lafiel looked down at the branch with doubt in her mind at how much use it would be, but she was determined to overcome any challenge that he might throw at her. When she looked up, he was already looking like he wanted this meeting to end, but did not know how to do it.

"You can still back out", he began again, "I wouldn't think lesser of you, and there really is nothing for you to gain by doing this."

"I won't", Lafiel reiterated more determinedly. She would prove to him that she could do this, and then, perhaps, he might confide in her, and later the whole team.

Shaking his head with a suppressed scowl, he muttered that it was her life to do with as she wished and began to stalk away from her along the path. He had not made it three steps before he stopped abruptly and looked back at her with a clear scowl.

Lafiel thought that he might be debating whether to let her join him. Perhaps seeing her resolve had been enough to pass some sort of hidden test. She tried walking up to him to see if she might be right.

"You will need these", he muttered barely audible and began rummaging through his bag until he found a thick book wrapped in glistening cloth, which he abruptly stuck in her hands.

The book was heavy and the cloth felt like it had been coated in wax. Removing the cover showed the title to be _Flora and Fauna in Vale by Quercus Argonfield_.

Before she had time to question it, a sheathed knife was produced from his waist. Its sheath was leafy green with leaves imprinted on it in a darker shade of green, while the handle looked to be dark wood that had been polished and oiled until it felt as smooth as silk. Taking it out slightly revealed an equally smooth bolster made of black horn and a gleaming steel blade with a saw-like back.

She recognized it immediately as the same knife that she had seen him cut vegetables with on their first mission. But that only confused her more as to why he would give her these. Surely, it would have been easier to just let her have her things back, even just her wallet, so that she could buy them herself.

"You can use it to sharpen the stick into a spear or bind it on the end to use as a spear point", he told her briskly, "the book is a Beacon rental, but I will want both things back by the end of the summer."

"Thanks, but won't you be missing it?", Lafiel asked, still confused at his gifts.

"I'll manage without", he dismissed her concerns with a wave of his hand, before picking up his dropped bag and slinging it over his shoulder, "now, good luck, and see you in two months, perhaps."

With that, he stalked away and left Lafiel without looking back. Lafiel looked back down on his parting gifts. She had not expected him to give them to her, and was confused that he had chosen to do so given his speech earlier about how little most started out with.

She didn't want him cuddling her so that he could later say that she had not been able to do it on her own. It would defeat the purpose of the challenge that he had thrown down.

Looking back up again, he had already disappeared from sight, though that was hardly surprising given the pace he had set. Right, time to get going herself.

…Wait, where was she supposed to go anyway?

She had been so absorbed in just getting here that she had not thought of what to do afterwards. Her original plan had been to tag along with Yonsa, but now he had left her without any money, Scroll or Fuchskrallen to find some way to survive the next two months on her own.

Her best bet would likely be to get on a merchant caravan like Yonsa's, but where to find those? She thought that she might have heard cranes working in the background when she called Yonsa, so the port might be a good place to start.

Putting the gifts in her bag, she put the long leg forward in an effort to get to get to the port as soon as possible. The quicker she got there, the quicker she could get passage and get going.

The port itself stank of fish and salt. Ships lay anchored here and there, with some in the process of being loaded and unloaded. On the other shore, a container bearing the Schnee emblem was being loaded onto a container ship filled with similar containers.

There weren't many people on the port, and those that were there all claimed to be too busy to talk to her. It was enough to make her want to grab one of them and shake him until he started talking.

"Merchants going outside the city?", hiccupped a dark haired middle-aged man smelling like he had been drinking all night and not had a shower in just as long, "why would a little thing like you want to know where they are?"

Lafiel didn't really want to talk with this man if she had had another option, but he was the only one that had stopped to listen.

"I'm looking for work on one of them", she answered him with forced patience, yet again.

"You should take a job in one of the stores instead. It pays better and you don't have to risk life and limb", he suggested her instead of answering her question.

"I don't want that. I want a job going outside the city", she said with a bit of annoyance creeping into her voice.

The likely still drunk man did a double take on her, before muttering, "you're one of Ozpin's students, aren't you? What, want a bit of adventure now that summer is here? Get a boyfriend or something instead."

"I don't want a boyfriend!", Lafiel snapped with a flush of anger creeping up on her face and her tail trashing wildly behind her, "I just need to find out where the caravans are gathering."

She was really starting to regret having stopped and asked this man.

"Woah, easy there kid", the infuriating man said with a small stumble, "if it means that much to ya, they usually go for drinks in the Armadillo bar on Fifth and Aversberg, though I don't think you are quite old enough to be in such a place." The last was said in a small chuckle and a teasing blink of his eye.

"Thanks", she managed to say through gritted teeth and quickly headed away from the infuriating drunkard. At least she had gotten an idea of where to go.

Barely three steps away, the straps on the left side of her bag broke with a snap.

"Come on, just give me a break already", Lafiel muttered under her breath as she tried to fix the damage by tying the two ends together in a knot. Unfortunately, even with having adjusted the length to fit again, the knot still managed to dig into her collarbone in a way that she was sure would give her a blue mark if she continued on with it like this.

Sighing in annoyance, she saw the sun beginning to dip on the horizon. She would have to hurry if she wanted to get something done before night fell. Unfortunately, that meant ignoring the knot for now and focusing on her primary task of getting passage on a merchant caravan.

The Armadillo was a place that Lafiel could best describe as quaint. It was located in the cellar below another store and had no windows. The dual vaultings that lined the long room joined together on the ceiling to make it look more rounded than it actually was.

Round tables with varying degrees of occupants were scattered throughout the room, all lighted by dangling lamps hanging from where the vaultings merged. At the end of the room, a wooden bar with plenty of filled alcohol bottles on shelves behind it was located. Strangely, a large empty roped off square was located next to the bar.

The barkeep was a man in his late forties with greying temples and a bit too much weight around the belly, but he seemed friendly enough, even if he did give Lafiel an appraising look that seemed to find her misplaced in the bar.

Nevertheless, when told that she sought work on a merchant caravan, he was quick to point out their tables to her. That he also suggested that she might be better off working as a waitress for one of his friends was easily overlooked.

 _Is it how I look?_ , she wondered as she made her way over to the table, _maybe it is because I am a Faunus? Or could there be a secret hand signal?_

The last idea made her chuckle slightly at the thought of Yonsa performing various intricate hand signals.

The table in question was filled completely with five middle aged men and one woman. Unlike the barkeep, all of them looked like they could start and end a fight without much fuss. One of the men had an eyepatch and in place of his left hand, he had a trident.

Not knowing who was the leader of the group, Lafiel decided to just address the table and see who answered first, "I hear that you will soon be moving outside the Kingdom to trade, and I was hoping that you might need another guard on the road."

A burly man with a grey full beard that sat next to the woman took another swig of his mug, before looking for confirmation from the woman. Said woman ran an appraising look over Lafiel, before shrugging slightly towards the man from before.

"Even if we were, why would we want to hire you?", the man asked her bluntly.

"I'm a student of Beacon and have been trained extensively in combatting the Grimm", Lafiel said without trying to sound like she was boasting, "having me with you would increase the security and lessen the chance of any of your wares or people getting lost."

"A student of Beacon, huh?", the man said and ran his eyes deliberately slowly over the wooden stick that Yonsa had left her with, "I'm not too sure that I believe that. Do you have any ID?"

Lafiel's hand had almost reached her pocket when she remembered that Yonsa had taken her wallet and Scroll. "My Scroll and wallet were taken from me earlier today", she told them instead.

"Oh, and what else do you have to provide proof for your claim?", he asked again with an amused twinkle in his eyes, "can you even summon an aura?"

Once again, Lafiel had to make an excuse that while she could summon an aura, she was not allowed to unless her life was threatened. At this point, she was fairly sure that Yonsa had purposefully robbed her of all possible ways to prove that she was not just some dumb little girl from the street. _Bastard._

When he told her that he had no room for a maybe, it was clear that he was trying to hold in laughter, and Lafiel barely managed to walk three steps before the entire table erupted in laughter. She had never been so humiliated in her entire life.

The next group didn't even let her finish talking before they cut her off and told her that they were already fully booked. After that, she passed two tables whose stares gave her shivers, before finally reaching a fifth one.

This one had seven people in total, and though they were not quite as old as the first table, they still looked twice her age. The three women and four men were seated in pairs, except for the last man, and it seemed clear that all were either married or in a relationship with each other.

"So, you want to join our group?", one of the men said with the same appraising look in his eyes that seemed to greet her every time she met someone. This time though, his eyes did a double take upon taking note of her hair, before settling on her tail.

Was it her blue hair that caused them to misjudge her?

"How well can you see in the dark?", he eventually asked her.

"Far better than any human", Lafiel answered honestly.

"And you say that you are a student of Beacon, but cannot provide any evidence for it", he continued without seeming to want her answer, "how about a little test then? If you can take down Shrubs over there, then I may consider bringing you along."

Shrubs was a big heavily muscled man in his early twenties that sat a few tables down with a group of similar looking young men. Within moments of being told of the situation, he had gathered up his spear-like weapon and had headed into the roped off square without asking Lafiel a single question.

 _That answers what that area is for_ , Lafiel mused as she dropped her equipment and headed into the square with only a blunt stick and Yonsa's knife secured at her waist.

She had seen and fought Yonsa enough times to have an idea of how to fight with a spear, but this wasn't even that. Even if it had been, she doubted that she would be more proficient with a weapon that she had never used before than someone that looked like he knew his weapon inside out.

With that being the case, she had to do something that he wouldn't expect and take him down quickly. An idea came to mind, and it was not something that would be expected of an experienced weapon wielder, and certainly not one that she would ever use in a real life or death battle with Grimm, but it just might work here.

Shrubs eyed her calculatingly when she entered the square. For effect, she decided to give her stick a few spins to give the illusion that she was more proficient with it than she really was. The loud jeers and shouts behind her were more than enough evidence that the entire bar would be watching this fight.

Her opponent launched quickly and suddenly with a stab that she only just managed to direct away from her, before he followed it up by trying to swing the spear around to hit her with the blunt end. She had seen the move from Yonsa enough times to sidestep it in her sleep.

When she didn't strike back immediately, he went on the offensive again, bringing thrust after thrust to bear. Had Lafiel not been as agile as she was, she doubted that she would have lasted long, but she knew that if she was to win, she had to wait for her moment.

The duel continued like that for a little while, before Shrubs finally made a swing from the side that she had to use both hands on the stick to block. Instead of letting him retreat though, she dropped the stick immediately after stopping the brunt of the impact, but before he had had time to adjust.

With his own weight bringing him out of balance, it was easy to use some of Pandora's lessons to flip him over and put his arm in a hold that he would not get out of. The poor guy barely had time to realize what was happening before the match was already over.

"Bravo on your victory, but that isn't going to work outside the walls, and especially not on Grimm", the man from earlier congratulated her.

"I know, but this isn't that situation, and you never said that I had to treat it as if it were", Lafiel responded in a slightly devious voice, "so, can I come?"

The man looked back at the table to ask their opinions, before turning back to her, "aye, you can come, but you have to get your own food. Our group don't have any room for charity cases. We leave for Mirage tomorrow at noon."

"Don't worry, I will handle it", Lafiel assured him happily, as she thought back on the book that Yonsa had given her.

In any case, she was finally a part of a group, and that was cause for celebration in and of itself. There was still the small matter that she still had no food or shelter before they left tomorrow, but she supposed that she could just use Beacon for that. Relying on it this early didn't really count.

"Now, let me introduce you to the leaders of our little group. I'm, Graa, Graa Star, by the way", he said and gestured towards the table that he had been sitting at before.


	14. A walk in the park

And now for the last part of the arc. Enjoy!

* * *

 **A walk in the park**

 **Lafiel  
** Three weeks in and the one thing that Lafiel regretted most of all was that she had not thought about the sheer amount of walking she would have to do. Her usual shoes were good for running and fighting in, but they had been worn down by wear and tear to the point that she would not want to fight in them ever again if she had a choice in the matter.

It didn't mean that they were bad to walk in. For that, they seemed to have become better over time, or else she had simply gotten more used to it. Either was as good an explanation as the other to her, though she suspected the latter to be truer since her legs no longer felt stiff and leaden whenever they made camp for the night.

"Spotted anything, kid?", Graa asked her from atop one of his wagons.

"No signs of any Grimm as far as I can tell", Lafiel told him.

The limited tracking that Birch had taught her on their first mission, combined with her eye sight, had soon made her a scout, though not the only one. It still amazed her how a little knowledge gleaned from an experienced Huntress had instantly elevated her status by several degrees within the group.

"Good. With luck, we can get to Fishton tonight if it holds up", he nodded mostly to himself. Lafiel had long since learned that though he always spoke optimistically, he was never caught off-guard when it didn't pan out as it should.

"Hope for the best and prepare for the worst", was one of his favourite sayings. It was in such stark contrast to Yonsa's 'expect the worst and be surprised when it doesn't go that way' attitude that Lafiel often wondered if Yonsa was abnormally pessimistic even for those operating outside the Kingdoms.

"What happens after we get to Fishton?", Lafiel wondered aloud.

"We sell some of our supplies and after that, we plan on moving along the coast until we get back to Vale", Graa answered, "selling everything in one city lowers the price, so we tend to spread out our sales across the coast."

Lafiel nodded in understanding. With everything that they had bought in the small towns along the way, it made sense that one city would not be able to buy it all without dropping prices considerably. She had already seen the same concept in practise on the way here, after all.

The initial trip to Mirage had not really taken that long, and if they had continued in a straight line afterwards, Lafiel guessed that they could have made it in a week or two. Instead though, they had continued southwards in a zigzagging arc that seemed to hit every small village in the Vale kingdom on its way, though Graa had assured her that they were not even close to visiting them all.

The villages and towns had need of entirely different things than the cities, and often, their needs didn't even match those of the next village. One, located close to the mountains, had bought jewellery, mechanical equipment transported all the way from Vale and food bought in the village right before it. In return, they had sold so many iron bars that Lafiel had thought that Hemat and Sider Ite's wagons might break from the strain.

Those two were the ones that dealt in minerals and metals in the group. Graa and his wife, Passer, traded mostly in food, limiting most of their profits to trading in cities and specialized villages. Leo and Pardus Panthera bought linen, wool and fur whenever the price was cheap enough, and in return, they often sold more expensive and finely made cloths from the cities.

The only one of the main traders that didn't have a wife with him was Lupus, who only seemed to trade in knick-knacks, as far as Lafiel could see. Still, it had to be a profitable enough business since he was still doing it.

That wasn't to say that those seven were the only ones in the caravan. They were just the largest traders, giving them the power to set the route and decide who could come with them and who couldn't. If Lafiel had to guess, there were twice as many guards and helpers as there were traders, and that was with most of the younger traders doing most manual work on their own.

According to Graa, some of them would eventually break off and start caravans of their own with their friends, while others would settle down in the cities and villages with a family. Few would still be doing this when their hair turned grey, and of those, even fewer would be by choice.

"Everyone wants to settle down somewhere nice and safe, but we need to build up a pension first", was how he described it, often followed up by a laughing, "besides, if we never retired, the young ones would never get their turn."

"Is this a common route for traders?", Lafiel asked Graa, who was trying to light a large half bent billiard pipe made of dark wood with ivory rings inlaid into it.

"Nah, only a few use it, and none that trade the exact same as us", he responded with a sour look at the lighter in his hand, before giving up on the venture entirely, "too many traders would only flood the market and ruin it for everyone, not to mention that Grimm and bandits become more frequent if a route becomes too crowded."

Judging by the one time that they had spotted something that looked like it might have been a group of bandits, Lafiel was not sure how crowded this route was. It hadn't led to any fighting due to the size of their guard, but the watch the following nights was far tighter than it had been.

"So caravans agree on routes and such?", Lafiel wondered.

"In a way", Graa said somewhat hesitantly, "having a positive relationship with the villagers along the way goes a long way to ensuring loyalty and ward off poachers, and for those that still try, we can usually convince them in other ways."

"Is this a particular profitable of a trade route?", Lafiel asked curious and wanting to steer away from the thoughts that his answer might bring.

"It's profitable enough given the lower risks involved with it", Graa answered thoughtfully, "there are others that could double our earnings, but they are all located far outside the patrolled area of Vale. Bandits and Grimm become far more numerous out there."

"So no one takes those routes?", Lafiel wondered.

"Some do. Mostly young newcomers looking for a quick score", he commented, "too many don't make it back to cash in on that for me to even consider it. Better to stay in here and earn it slower but safer. Still, desperate men are often willing to take risks that no sane man would. And if you grew up in a city on the eastern side of the Vale Mountains, there isn't much of a choice in the matter. You can either stay and farm in your village or risk the dangers of the road by trading, but if no one is doing the latter, then the whole village might eventually die off. Few villages are entirely self-sufficient. They depend on each other's resources just as much as Vale needs its hinterlands."

"Sounds like a rough living", Lafiel commented, "why would someone choose that?"

"I don't know myself", Graa shrugged, "I guess some want to be free of Vale influence and decide that it can't be that bad. Honestly though, I think most just grew up out there and see it as part of who they are. Besides, with only sporadic CCT coverage, I don't know if many of them realize just how different it is on this side of the Mountains."

"But if they can't communicate with Scrolls, does that mean that they are using couriers then?", Lafiel questioned.

"You mean like those unlucky souls in Mistral? Hah, no! We take care of our own in Vale", he boasted, before seeing her confused expression, "look kid, if you ever run into one of those, don't trust your back to them. They'll tell you stories of their bravery and loyalty, and they may get your package to its destination, but if they are old enough to talk with you face to face, then they are either liars or trying to lure you into a bandit trap. Best case scenario is that they will just leave you to die if the situation gets critical enough, and I have heard that some even actively sabotage others to use as bait when they make their escape."

"Surely all of them cannot be that bad", Lafiel argued, refusing to believe that an entire group of people could be described as simply as that. It sounded too much like what some said of Faunus.

"Some might be trusting and loyal, but I doubt that they live long", Graa dismissed her argument, "look kid, all I'm saying is that there is a reason that no one has ever heard of two couriers grouping up for anything other than being temporary guards on a trading caravan. If they cannot even trust each other to have their back, then why should we?"

Lafiel didn't know how to respond to that, and soon found herself fiddling with the sheathed green knife at her waist. The stick-turned-spear that Yonsa had originally given her to use, had broken upon the hide of a Beowolf during their first attack, and only her quick reflexes with the knife had saved her from a slash that would have taken off her head if she had not also activated her aura.

After that, she had not bothered trying to get another stick and had instead used the knife as her primary weapon. Besides, it fitted her usual style better than the spear had. The only real downside of using the knife was that she still had not found a way of hunting with it effectively.

That had been the first hurdle that she had had to find a solution to. As it turned out, trying to hunt without any ranged weapons was more difficult than you would imagine. During the early days, she had had to sustain herself on what plants she could find in the wild with only the textbook to tell her if what she was about to eat was poisonous or not.

Fortunately, one of the others quickly took pity on her and taught her how to construct and set snares. That helped a little, but since snares needed plenty of time, it meant that they were only good for trying to catch food that would feed you the next day.

As Lafiel had found out, the thought of future food did not do much to settle a stomach that was hungry in the here and now. It especially didn't help when you had not eaten anything but a couple of nuts for three days straight.

That had been the worst three days of the entire trip, and it had only ended when Graa had taken pity on her and given her food. It was only fair since she had proven more useful to them than he had first thought, or so he had said.

She had still continued scavenging for food after that, but with the ice broken, it was easier for them to give her some when she came up empty. For that, she would always be eternally grateful to them.

"So, kid, I have been thinking, and I want you to answer me honestly. There won't be any consequences either way you answer this", Graa said and broke her train of thought. When Lafiel nodded for him to go on, he continued, "are you really a student of Beacon? I won't mind if you lied about it to improve your odds. Truthfully, it is far from the worst that I have heard in my time."

"I am a student of Beacon", Lafiel answered firmly.

"But are Huntsmen not supposed to have specialized weapons?", he asked, "when you first came to me, all you had was your stick and that knife, and of the two, you only have one left."

"I have, but my…friend told me that if I wanted to know what it was like living outside the walls, I had to give them up. Took my Scroll and wallet too", she explained.

"Ahh", he made a noise of understanding with recognition in his eyes, "so your friend, is he a training to be a Huntsman like you?"

"Yes, he is my partner at Beacon", Lafiel answered, "but we weren't seeing eye-to-eye, so I decided to try and walk a mile his shoes to broaden my perspective."

"I see", he muttered mostly to himself.

"You don't find it intrusive, I hope?", Lafiel asked him unsure of whether he would react as Yonsa had.

"No, why would I? On the contrary, if more city-folk knew the hardships of making a living outside the walls, perhaps they wouldn't look down their noses at us whenever they think we aren't looking", Graa dismissed her concerns.

"I'm glad to hear that", Lafiel breathed a sigh of relief, "my partner didn't see it that way and tried to dissuade me from doing it in the first place."

"Perhaps he was concerned about your safety?", Graa suggested.

"If he was, then he shouldn't have taken my weapons from me", Lafiel grumbled, "no, I don't think he was concerned about my safety as much as he just didn't want me to come with him."

"I wouldn't know about that, but I doubt that he doesn't care about your safety. He gave you that knife after all, right? And the book too, I guess", Graa pointed out.

"Yeah, I guess so. And since he didn't know of me coming beforehand, he would have had to avoid making use of these himself to increase my chances", Lafiel argued more to convince herself than anyone else, while fiddling with the knife in question.

"See! I'm sure that he worries about you in his own way", Graa encouraged her.

"Yeah, maybe", Lafiel conceded, before sighing tiredly, "still, even so, I may not achieve anything from this after all. When I set out to do this, I had planned on travelling with him and earn his trust that way, but if he is not even here to see it, then what good will it be? I would have to do something truly impressive for word of it to be enough on its own."

It was then that something clicked in Lafiel's mind. As Graa had said, this side was the "safe" side to be on.

"Say Graa, how closely would you say the eastern side of the Vale Mountains mirrors the situation in the outer regions of Mistral?", she asked him carefully.

"Fairly close to some parts, I guess. I mean, Mistral is so vast that…", he explained in a casual tone before realization hit him, "don't even think of it. Whatever you think you owe this guy, it is not enough to do something this… _foolish!_ Even had you had your normal weapons with you, I would still have considered it a fool's errand!"

"Alright, alright! I won't go", Lafiel quickly assured him. The lie tasted acrid on her tongue.

She hadn't thought he would have reacted so strongly to it. He had no reason to, after all.

Graa studied her for a moment, before giving a dejected sigh, "you still will. I cannot stop you from doing this, nor do I have the right to, but if possible, could you wait in Fishton for a couple of days? Just enough for me and mine to finish up our business. After that, if you still want to go, I won't try to stop you, but if you change your mind, I'll be glad to have you join us on the way back to Vale. I'll even pay you then."

"Wait, you aren't paying me now?", Lafiel burst out.

"No? It was not a part of our deal before", Graa pointed out, "now that I have had a look at your skill set however, I would be willing to pay you for any future patronage, but don't expect others to think the same."

"I feel like I have been taken advantage of somehow, but I don't know whether I should be angry or not", Lafiel grumbled.

"Not much use in being angry about it now. Consider it a life lesson instead", Graa laughed, before returning to his serious voice, "but promise me that you won't leave Fishton until our business is done. By then, I hope that you will see sense."

"I would like to make that promise, but if you aren't paying me anything, then I won't have anything to eat unless I move on", Lafiel pointed out.

"I could help you with that", Graa offered, "I'll just put it on your tab."

"I have a tab?", Lafiel asked confused.

"It's a figure of speech", Graa brushed off her concerns, "but do I have your word then?"

Lafiel's tail swished from side to side as she chewed on her tongue. She knew that it would be best to accept the offer. No matter what she wished, it was far from certain that someone headed outside the kingdom would be ready to leave when she got there.

It might be days or even weeks before she got a chance to join another group headed that way, and she had to find some way to sustain herself until then. This would help her do that for a while, and she might even be able to convince Graa to give her a recommendation, though it seemed unlikely at the moment.

Still, staying with Graa and Passer's group would give them time to convince her not to go, and she did not trust that they would not succeed. She could already imagine most of their arguments herself, because they were concerns that she already had.

Food was only the basest of needs, and sooner or later, she would need to address her others. Her boots seemed close to giving out, and she could certainly need a change of clothes also. Her only weapon was a measly dagger, certainly not enough to deal with any real threat, and her backpack only had half of what she had started with.

Had she had any money, she could have solved these issues simply, but the only sure way to get Lien was to take up Graa's offer, which would lead her straight back to Vale with nothing much to show for all her time out here.

"You have", Lafiel finally decided. If nothing else, this would provide her with a few days to explore her options more closely.

"Good", Graa nodded in satisfaction, before his eyes fell on the sun in the horizon, "now, I think that I have taken up enough of your time. Off with you. Shrubs is good in a brawl, but he would let a Death Stalker walk right past him if Sapphire was near."

"But you aren't paying me to scout ahead", Lafiel pointed out cheekily, to which he only responded by raising one of his eyebrows in challenge.

Lafiel decided not to press the joke further, and departed the wagon with a friendly wave. It would be best not to risk any insult when she still might need his help in the future.

The remainder of the day was largely uneventful. The Vale Guard made sure that nothing really happened this close to one of their major cities. It reminded her of Haulton, in a way. The Vale Guard had been quick to respond there too.

From stories in the smaller towns that they had passed through, Lafiel knew that it was not always so. Smaller towns, especially those far from bigger towns and cities, were far more likely to fend for themselves.

It made sense, when she thought of it logistically. Vale did not have enough forces to guard every little hamlet, so they concentrated on the largest and most important ones. Whether said cities had grown large enough to be protected or grew large enough by being protected was not something that Lafiel knew the answer to.

In the end though, it didn't matter to those that could not protect themselves. Still, if what she had inferred of Mistral was true, then those in the Kingdom of Vale should count themselves lucky. The only people that might be more protected than Vale were those in Atlas.

Atlas had the largest and most advanced army in the world, and their frozen tundra of a home supposedly made it highly advantageous to concentrate the population in as few properly developed cities as possible. Combined, this supposedly led to a high degree of security for most people living in the Kingdom of Atlas.

When her plan to cultivate the centre of Menagerie succeeded, then that title would hopefully be taken from them. Menagerie was not as vast and inhospitable as Solitas, and it had an ocean surrounding it on all sides, so if the centre was cleared out, it should be possible to secure the whole island with relatively little effort.

So engrossed was she in those thoughts that she only noticed the city in the horizon when the others shouted about it. Annoyed at forgetting herself, she shook the thoughts out of her head and concentrated on the here and now. Even if they were close to a city, she should not have let her guard down.

Haulton reminded her a lot of Vale, only smaller. A ring-wall encircled the outer perimeters, with only a river that flowed through the city and into the ocean, to break it up along the way. Said river was large enough that Lafiel had no trouble imaging the barges filled with flour, ore and other goods that Leo had told her of.

When it reached the wall, the wall went in an arch above it. If not for the large black grate that could lower into the river, the city likely would have been overrun with Grimm and worse already. As it was now however, the river added far more commerce to the city than it caused trouble.

Inside, the city seemed even more bustling than Vale had ever seemed. Street vendors cried their wares, mothers tried to keep a hold on their children and in the middle of it all, Graa's wagons rolled down the paved road with none of the rumbling that had long since become part of the background noise to Lafiel.

"We are heading to the docks. You can meet us there when you are done looking around", Graa shouted to her over the city buzz.

Lafiel nodded in reply and quickly split off from the main group. It wasn't just that she was eager to go sightseeing. She also needed to find her bearings and hopefully a lead on how to get to the outer areas.

Many of the people gave first her hair and then her tail an extra look as she passed them, but a steady hand on the knife handle made sure everyone thought twice before trying to accost her. Had she carried Fuchskrallen, she expected that people would have been far more wary of her.

The city, while not as large as Vale by far, was still quite large. It was so large in fact that Lafiel lost her bearings more than once. The only landmark that she could really use to identify her position was a large statue in the distance that towered over all of the nearby houses.

With no other discernible waypoint, Lafiel found herself steadily drawing closer and closer to it until the street that she was on finally opened up to a wide park. The plaza had patches of green and trees in all colours spread around it, with the statue standing on a fountain in the centre.

Benches lined the pathways leading around the park, each one mirroring the colour of the leaves behind it. As she got closer to the statue, more people could be seen milling around. There was a street musician playing his flute underneath a pink cherry tree, a cloaked man with a spear on his lap sitting on a bench eating slices of hard cheese straight from a knife, a young couple walking arm in arm down the road, a couple of children playing with mock wooden swords and much more to see than Lafiel wanted to at the moment. With a tired sigh, she sat down on the bench next to the man and let her head fall back. It would be too easy to just close her eyes and let out all the tension that had built up over the past three weeks.

"You _are_ a redhead then", Yonsa commented from beside her.

Drowsily, Lafiel lifted a hand to grab a lock of hair for closer inspection. Most of it was still blue, but there was a good 4 cm or so that was as red as the maple trees on the other side of the road. Even before setting out for this trip, she had been in need of a redye.

"It looks good on you", he idly commented as he munched another slice of cheese.

"I never liked my red hair", Lafiel muttered as she let the strand drop.

"Not much I can argue with you there", Yonsa said with a shrug, "but I still think the change from red to blue looks good on you."

Did it? Lafiel had never thought of it. She would have to get a mirror soon, so that she could see if he actually had a point or not. A thought then struck her.

"Did you follow me?", she asked in a voice that demanded the truth. Him being here right as she came into town was just too much of a coincidence to be true.

"No. I came into town a few days ago", Yonsa denied with a huff, "I already told you that I would be working, and following you around does nothing for me."

"So meeting you here is pure coincidence then?", Lafiel asked to be sure.

"Not exactly. I figured that if you came into town, you would either be drawn here or to the docks. The view is nicer here", Yonsa said with another shrug, "at any rate, are you ready to go back to Vale now and end this vacation of yours?"

"No!", she said firmly enough that it drew stares, "if you really want to know, I'm planning on heading outside the kingdom next."

Yonsa mulled that over while slowly chewing on his cheese, until he finally swallowed and simply asked, "why?"

"I already told you. I want to understand where you are coming from", Lafiel pointed out, "if what I heard was correct, then the area inside the kingdom is far too safe to be compared with that of Mistral."

"Exactly! Why do you think that I am staying in here?", Yonsa argued, letting the roll of cheese fall into his lap in the process.

"But you have already experienced what it is like outside. I haven't yet", Lafiel argued back, "if that is what it takes to convince you that I'm serious about fixing our team, then so be it."

"No, you are not blaming this on me", Yonsa said in a defensive tone with a finger already lifted at her, "I specifically told you that this was not what I wanted."

He then fell quiet, though the furious tapping on his knee broke it somewhat. As he turned to her again, there was a calculated look in his eyes, "what do I have to do to convince you to stop this _foolishness_?"

Lafiel lightly chuckled at the unbidden resemblance to Graa, to Yonsa's great confusion, before taking a deep breath and in a calm voice said, "I told you that I am serious about this."

He raked a hand through his light brown hair in frustration, giving it a few good tucks before finally settling down.

"Fine, have you ever heard the story of the Three Couriers?", he said with some resignation.

"No", Lafiel denied with a shake of her head, wondering where he was going with this.

"A courier was walking alone in the woods when a Grimm came upon him", he began, "unable to do anything, the courier pleaded with the Grimm to leave him be, even telling it that he knew of a much juicer courier a little away. Nothing helped and the Grimm swallowed him whole, but the Grimm was smart and knew what the human had said, so it went to find the second courier. When it came upon the second one, it surprised him too and quickly overpowered him. Wise from its interaction earlier, the Grimm growled threateningly until the second courier finally offered it the location of a third courier, after which it swallowed him whole. Experienced as it was now, the Grimm quickly overtook and overpowered the third courier as well, but he could only offer the locations of the first one that it had already eaten, so it swallowed him whole too. To this day, it is said that the three couriers are still arguing inside its stomach about who was more at fault."

He ended the story with a chuckle that Lafiel could not understand to belong in such a story. It was only then that she realized that the story might have been an attempt at humour. If so, then she was glad that this was the first time he had tried entertaining her.

"What is so funny about it?", she asked confused.

"It's a cautionary tale among couriers in Mistral", Yonsa told her, "you can't negotiate with death, but some will still try, so make sure that they don't know where you are, especially if you cannot defend yourself."

His explanation of it reminded her again of Graa's warnings regarding couriers, but she tried not to let it show, "and what does that have to do with me going outside the kingdom?"

"Nothing. I was stalling for time", Yonsa revealed bluntly, "but before I go on, you must promise me that you do not tell this to anyone. Not even our teammates without my permission."

"I promise", Lafiel made the pledge easily, perhaps too easily. A small part of her was nervous of what he might expect her to keep to herself.

Yonsa swallowed and licked his lips before he began, "this happened years ago. I was still new and inexperienced and hadn't even been able to afford a weapon, let alone know how to use one. The snows had fallen heavy that winter, but I had kept working small deliveries throughout them nonetheless. In one village that I was in, there was this guy. I can't remember what he looked like, but he was desperately looking for someone to take a letter to his mother that lived in a village two weeks away in good conditions, and he was offering his armband as payment, even said it was a family heirloom. The thing was made of gold and had these drawings and writings written all across it. I was quick to accept the job, of course", a dry chuckle escaped him then, "just selling it as is would be several times the normal rate, and I thought that if I held on to it, I would be able to sell it to his mother for several times that."

He paused there for a moment, before continuing, "when I left the village that day, I felt a little under the weather, but I pressed on regardless, thinking only of the payday that would come. A week later, that small feeling had developed into something much more serious. My arms and legs were weak and stinging with cold and the rest of me felt like I was boiling up. A raging headache throbbed like someone was jamming icicles into my skull and my vision was blurry at best. I don't remember how, but I somehow managed to find shelter in a small grotto that shielded me from the wind. There, I spent the next three days in a haze, constantly wishing that the pain would go away and forever frightful that my pain and fright might attract Grimm to me. At one point, I thought that I saw a wolf, and my only thought was that I hoped it would do it quickly. It is, without a doubt, the worst that I have ever felt in my entire life", Lafiel saw an involuntary shiver go up his back at just recollecting this, before he shook his head, as if to clear himself of those thoughts.

"Eventually, I started to feel better. Not great, by any stretch of the imagination, but good enough that I could walk a little each day. What had been supposed to only take two or so weeks ended up taking a month, the last week of which, I did not eat a single scrap. When I finally got to the village, I could barely crawl another step, let alone walk. One of the villagers found me, helped me inside and even managed to get the recipient of the letter for me. Hungry as I was, I would have traded the damn armband for a single good meal and been happy about it. She didn't offer that though, didn't even look twice at the armband after reading the letter.  
… She hugged me, tears in her eyes and all, and fed me and nursed me back to health for a week after that without asking anything in return."

At this, his voice cracked and Lafiel thought she saw his eyes begin to water. Instinctively, she put a comforting hand on his shoulder, but if he noticed, he did not show it. They stayed like that for a little while, before he finally breathed in deep and regained control of his voice again.

"What I hadn't known when I accepted the task was that the guy's village had been overrun with Grimm a couple of months before that, and while word of that had spread far and wide, he had not been able to get word to his mother that he had survived until I arrived in town", Yonsa continued in a steady voice while fiddling with the red sash on his spear, "after my strength had returned, I wanted to leave the place. She offered to let me stay the winter, but I refused, saying that I had other work that needed doing. As a parting gift, she gave me a red scarf to keep me warm, and then I was off to another village in the hopes that they might have work for me."

"And the armband?", Lafiel prodded gently. The absence of its fate had not gone unnoticed to her.

"Right, I never got around to broaching that particular topic. In the end, I figured that I still wanted to sell it for the extra cost that it would bring in as an heirloom, but that I didn't need all that money on my person at that very moment. I found a good spot just outside town, where I buried it until I would have need of it one day. It isn't the only such reserve that I have made over the years. Carrying around too much increases chances of you getting robbed after all", he said too quickly, as if he had said it over and over again. Lafiel would let him have it.

"Thank you, for trusting me enough to tell me that", Lafiel told him sincerely, "I know it must have been difficult for you."

She certainly hadn't expected to hear such a story from him. With how glib he was about other things, she had expected something more…questionable. And neither had it been a story that she could use against him in any way. It was just a deeply personal story that meant a lot to him and little to others, but it was a start towards him trusting her.

"Yes, but remember, not a word to anyone", he reminded her in a blunt voice, before suddenly getting up, "now, let's get you your weapons back and start getting you back to Vale."

"But I still want to go outside the kingdom", Lafiel protested. If anything, hearing his story had only made her want to understand what it was like first-hand even more. She could handle a couple of weeks more on her own, even if they were tougher than the ones she had just endured.

Yonsa faltered in his step as he turned around, glaring at her for a moment before brightening up again, "even if you found someone to take you tonight, just getting there would take the rest of the summer break, not to mention getting back again. If you still want to next summer, then we can talk."

After making a few estimates in her head, Lafiel nodded in acquiescence and got up beside him.

"Fuchskrallen is with my stuff, but we will have to buy back your Scroll first. I pawned it to your caravan leader as collateral for feeding you if it became necessary", he continued and began to walk ahead.

"You do care after all", Lafiel said surprised, stopping for a moment before catching up to him again.

"Not particularly, but having you die while supposedly under my watch wouldn't exactly be conducive to strengthening my odds at Beacon", he lied, "but I do expect you to pay me back for any meals you ate."

"But you have my wallet? If you gave it back to me, I could just pay him myself", Lafiel pointed out confused.

"You can have that back when we get back to Vale. Until then, whenever you need to buy something, you will have to either pay for it with money you earn or ask me for another loan", he answered a little too smugly, "and I will be needing to know exactly what you will be using it on. It is my money after all."

Lafiel was about to protest until she realized that in order to do so, he would have to intend them to go together for the rest of the trip. That realization made her both happy that he had finally accepted her as a partner and furious that she would have to beg him for money every time she needed something.

"Fine, but when we get back to Beacon, your ass belongs to me, partner", she said to him with a too sweet smile.

For every Lien she had to borrow, she would run him through the wringer twice, no, thrice, and she expected that if asked about it, he would keep silent about the reason why.

* * *

Well, this arc turned out quite differently than my first idea for it. I had originally only thought of the events in Family visits as a stand alone, but it expanded from there on and I ended up using some of the ideas that I had already considered part of canon, but had not yet found a way to put into the story.


	15. To hunt a Grimm

Wow, it was a lot harder to get back into writing this than I had hoped. Funny how many "little things" can be used to push back writing sessions until you might as well wait for tormorrow. Anyway, here is another story. It is contained in just this chapter mostly because I didn't see any good places to split it up and decided that it wasn't _that_ long (certainly no First Mission).

Enjoy!

* * *

 **To hunt a Grimm**

 **Seishin  
** Seishin's head bobbed up and down in a steady rhythm. Even after five days, he was still not entirely comfortable riding the large brown draft horse. The soreness from riding in the saddle all day certainly didn't help either, and he could still feel the bruise from when it had first thrown him off.

Unlike a car, the horse had a mind of its own. It could, and had, taken decisions that Seishin didn't agree with, and he felt powerless to stop it. As if sensing his thoughts, the horse chose then to whicker and shake its head, before it veered off the forest path towards some wild blackberry bushes at the edge of the forest.

"No, go straight", he whispered and tried to steer it with the reins, but to no affect.

When that didn't help, he tried to use his legs to forcefully turn the horse. Pandora had mentioned something about steering with only your legs. Instead of turning as he wanted, it started jumping towards the path.

Had he not clung to it for dear life, Seishin would surely have been thrown out of the saddle. It wasn't until Pandora came up behind him on her white filly and calmed it down that Seishin finally let go of his death grip.

"What did you do it!?", she demanded to know while continuing to stroke its head calmly.

"It began to move off path, and I tried turning it as you said", Seishin explained with a suspicious look at the suddenly calm horse.

"Gently!", she hissed, "I said to _gently_ use your legs!"

Of team LPYS, only Pandora had experience riding horses, which had been a surprise to Seishin. Given how often Yonsa had naturally guided them on missions outside the walls, Seishin had thought that he had experience with horse riding as well. The white-knuckled grip on Yonsa's own reins spoke a different story however.

"Is there a problem back there?", Ahab snapped from on ahead.

"No, sir. I was just having trouble with my horse", Seishin explained sheepishly. He did not want the old Huntsman to have a bad view of him, or to send them back to Beacon.

"Then keep up. I think we have gained half a day on it", the old Huntsman instructed and promptly set off again.

"Perhaps we wouldn't have so many issues if you didn't press the horses to near exhaustion every day", Pandora grumbled under her breath with a sour look towards Ahab's red and golden cloak.

Though Seishin wanted to defend their leader, he didn't want to stir up unnecessary trouble with his teammates. Ahab had explained that it was necessary to push ahead if they wanted to capture their quarry. It wasn't his fault that the four of them couldn't keep up with him on a mission that they themselves had chosen.

When they set off again, Pandora was riding beside Seishin. Close enough to intervene if necessary, but not so close that their horses would begin to bite each other. It somewhat annoyed him that she felt the need to do so, especially with Ahab there to see it.

"I don't see the point of this. We have been travelling for nearly a week with no Grimm in sight and no civilization beyond where we started", Pandora grumbled too low for Ahab to hear, "surely our talents would be better spent cleaning up Grimm infestations closer to villages than hunting down a single one."

"This one is stronger than those, and has been known to take on entire villages and Huntsmen", Seishin repeated their mentor's arguments, "besides, we get to work with Ahab Aodhfin! He is a living legend back at my combat school!"

"I know. You told us back when we chose this mission. Why else would we have agreed to something meant for first years?", Pandora said with sigh, "but that doesn't help alleviate the feeling that we are wasting time chasing a Geist."

Seishin wanted to argue that it wasn't a waste of time, that they were doing important work, but he also didn't want to start an unwinnable argument. Pandora could be quite stubborn when she set her head on something, and trying to convince her otherwise now would only harden her resolve.

Besides, he knew that she wasn't the only one thinking such thoughts. Lafiel had begun pacing every night when they made camp, though that might also be to alleviate the day in the saddle. Not to mention that Yonsa had sent Ahab's back more than a few sour looks, though that might also be because the older Huntsman had forbidden him from venturing too far from the main group.

Given the circumstances, it had been a prudent choice. Yonsa could have never kept up with them on foot, and they were already pushing their horses every day as it was. The only reason he had to sulk was that they had gotten used to far more freedom on their missions. Funny how a few short years without needing mentors could do that.

"I talked with Yonsa this morning", Pandora continued in that low voice, "he said that we only have rations enough for a couple of days more."

It wasn't strange that Yonsa kept track of their supplies when out on missions. What was strange was that Pandora was telling him about it, like she expected him to do something about it. Lafiel usually handled such decisions.

A look back showed the two of them riding side by side, much as he and Pandora were. Yonsa was holding out a leather purse to Lafiel, whose hand was already lifting from it filled with blackberries. With the shifting light of the canopy, it was hard to determine where exactly the red hair ended and the purple going to blue hair started when woven together in her tight braid.

"I'm sure Ahab knows what he is doing", Seishin answered her unspoken question, "he has more experience out here than all of us put together."

Ahab Aodhfin had been a legendary alumni back at Seishin's combat school. It was that status that had gotten Seishin to convince his team to take the mission. No matter how experienced they thought they were, it would be always be prudent to get hands-on tutoring from such a man when the opportunity presented itself.

Pandora shot a quick look back at the others before continuing, "still, could you speak with him on it? It would give us all ease of mind if we knew that he had a plan in mind."

"I can, but why not Lafiel?", Seishin said confused with a look back at the two others. They didn't even bother trying to pretend to look away.

"We decided at the beginning that since meeting Ahab meant so much to you, we would give you as much chance as possible to interact with him", Pandora explained with a small shrug.

Thinking back on it, Seishin supposed that was true. He hadn't noticed it before because they were all small request, but when added together, they made a startling picture. It was somewhat embarrassing that he hadn't noticed it until now.

Aside from when Yonsa tossed them his half-empty purse of blackberries, nothing really happened for the rest of the day. The greenery to their sides came and went with little to differentiate one area from the next.

Ahab pushed them hard until it became too dark for the horses to continue, and only then did he begin searching for a good campsite. Seishin knew that they had to push this hard if they meant to catch the creature, but he couldn't help but be affected by Pandora's worry for the horses.

"You all did good today", Ahab complimented with a proud smile as they sat around the campfire, "if we keep up this pace, we should be able to catch it within the next couple of days".

A feeling of pride swelled within Seishin for only a few moments before looks from the others quelled it again. At times like this, he really wished that Lafiel wouldn't give him the 'honour' of being their spokesperson.

"Sir? If I may ask a question?", Seishin nervously said.

"Go ahead", Ahab allowed with barely a hint that he had detected his nervousness.

"About the food, sir. What is your plan if we go beyond our rations?", Seishin asked.

"Ah, good that you brought it up", Ahab said with a nod towards Seishin, "we will have to start rationing what we have left."

"If you will let me, I could see what I can forage when we make camp?", Yonsa offered.

"No, we cannot have you so tired that you fall asleep on your horse and drag us further behind", Ahab shot him down, "rationing will do for now."

Seishin could see that Yonsa didn't like the decision, but Lafiel laying her hand on his arm and whispering something into his ear was enough to prevent any outburst that may have occurred. Ahab wasn't wrong in his decision. Yonsa was just a bit stir crazy from having to ride all day every day for a week.

The next day and the day after that went much the same as every day before them. The only real change was that they were now only a day and a half behind the creature according to Ahab. Surprisingly, none of his teammates had issued any complaints, though Seishin could definitely feel their mood dropping by the day. Long days of travel with limited food could do that.

At one point, when Pandora fell back to ride beside Yonsa, Seishin did think that they might be starting up Semblance practise again. Seishin didn't much care for the feeling of not knowing your own strength, but Lafiel and especially Pandora had been quite interested in learning how to adapt and master it.

That neither of them were particularly good at it yet was simply a matter of practise, or so Yonsa had said. In Seishin's view, it wasn't just about practise. He had tried it enough to know that it was about unlearning how to move your every muscle and then relearn it again. When combined with it only lasting for a short time, it was not an ability that he believed that others could just pick up with more practise.

Seishin, and secretly also Yonsa, suspected that the reason why Pandora was doing so badly in picking it up was because she was already so attuned to her precise muscle control that any deviation from it would be like unlearning how to walk. That her unenhanced combat skills had begun to drop lately seemed to be a side effect of this process, but she was too determined to master it to listen to Seishin's advice and just drop the entire thing.

 _At least I know what to look out for in future matches_ , Seishin mused as he looked back on them. Yonsa already had a couple of coloured juggling balls out before Lafiel waved them away, much to the dismay of Pandora.

It wasn't something that you would notice unless you knew what to look for, but there was a distinct feeling whenever Yonsa used his Semblance on you. The best way that Seishin could describe it was like a cold hand being hold _just_ above the back of your neck.

On the third day after they had begun rationing, Seishin really began feeling the effects of the rationing as well. There was only so long a man could go with only two thirds of his usual meals before the effects began to manifest themselves.

A dull thud behind him was the only notification he had before Yonsa darted off into some bushes with his spear in hand. Lafiel held the reins for his horse and showed no signs of stopping to wait for him, forcing Seishin and Pandora forward as well.

Ahead of them, Ahab had noticed nothing. His mind was fixed on tracking the Grimm, and he expected them to follow his commands. Seishin didn't dare to ask Lafiel why Yonsa had bolted for fear that Ahab would overhear and begin scolding them.

Yonsa was gone for long enough that Seishin almost asked Ahab to stop and wait for him, scolding be damned. When he did return, it was at a dead sprint with a small bag slung over his shoulder. His entry made so much noise that even Ahab turned around to see what was going on.

"Where have you been, boy?", he snapped at Yonsa as the latter doubled over gasping for breath next to his horse.

"Grimm. Around us. Tracking us", he managed to say between gulps of breath.

"I already suspected as much. If we keep up the pace, only a few should manage to reach us before we reach our quarry", Ahab grumbled, "but that still doesn't answer why you thought it was alright to go running off without informing me first. What is in that bag?"

"Wild. Apples", Yonsa answered and opened the bag to show a collection of small green apples with splashes of red. Seishin could practically taste their sourness even from here, but he was hungry enough not to care.

"Hmm, I guess your delay wasn't entirely for naught then", Ahab conceded, "but unless you want to fight Grimm for the rest of the day, I suggest you get back on your horse and don't delay us any further than you already have".

With a reluctant nod of confirmation, Yonsa was back on his horse and they were all on the move again. Only now, their pace was increased to a brisk canter. The high speed made it exceedingly uncomfortable to ride, and Seishin was in near constant fear that he would make a mistake and have the horse run into the thickets or trip over some branch.

They kept up that pace for nearly an hour and a half before Pandora finally forced them to slow down. Ahab had wanted to continue the pace for a little while longer, but Pandora had pointed to the frothing and heaving horses and explained that unless he wanted to kill them, they had to slow down.

Seishin's behind was thankful for the slower pace, but when the first Grimm came upon them not an hour later, he could not help but wonder if they should not have kept up the pace. It was not to be the last of the day however.

The rest of the day consisted of sporadic Grimm attacks, and since the horses got spooked when they fired their weapons, they were forced to stop often to ward off the attacks. The Grimm weren't a danger per se since only Beowolves and Boarbatusks were fast enough to catch them, and none of them came in large enough groups to pose a real threat.

Still, the frequency of attacks did concern Seishin slightly. Had they attracted every Grimm along their route, but only let them catch up to them now? If so, then he was afraid that worse than Beowolves and Boarbatusks were coming.

Ahab didn't allow them to stop until well after it had gotten too dark to safely ride the horses, and even then, Seishin got the feeling that he would have preferred to keep going. This feeling was reinforced by them simply stopping, instead of looking for a defendable campsite. No campfires were allowed, so as to not attract more Grimm than could be avoided.

Unfortunately, this limited their food to what didn't need cooking. Dry crackers with jelly and cheese pastes were not much of a meal, so they started eating Yonsa's apples as well. Upon taking his first bite, Seishin thought that he had bitten into a lemon.

"I had planned to cook them to remove most of sourness", Yonsa said apologetically as he took a second bite into his apple without making a face.

 _The man's taste buds are long dead_ , Seishin reminded himself. It wasn't the first time that he had happily devoured something that would make the others retch by the smell alone.

"No fire", Ahab muttered as he tore into his apple as well, though not entirely without letting it show.

Seeing Ahab persevere through the same ordeals as them helped lighten Seishin's mood. If even legendary figures faced troubles such as these, then who was he to start complaining? He was sure that once they were safely back at Beacon, they would all look fondly back on this trip, especially the challenging parts.

That night, they arranged for pairs to be on guard duty, and for once, Ahab left his mechanical left leg on, though not without grumbling about it itching. It was a crude prosthetic that only just managed to serve its purpose. Nothing like the fine Atlesian model that Stirling had used during the tournament.

Seishin and Pandora got first watch. Normally, this would have been a victory in Seishin's mind. This night was different however. The others hadn't been asleep for long when the first stray wandered into their camp, and it would be followed by more as the night wore on.

When Seishin's shift finally ended with him waking Lafiel, he found it hard to go to sleep. Neither the hard ground nor the noise would have normally kept him from sleeping. What did keep him awake was knowing that the Grimm could and would leap at him at any moment, and the only thing to stop them from ripping him to shreds was his teammates' reaction times.

They had faced similar situations in the past, but back then, they had always found a campsite that was easy to defend from only one or two sides. In this one, you had to keep an eye on every side unless you wanted to be surprised.

All in all, it amounted to Seishin only sleeping a little, and he severely doubted the quality of the sleep that he did manage to get. The only good thing was that Ahab allowed them to boil some water for their morning porridge since the sun was already on its way up.

None of them talked much that morning, and Pandora even snapped at Seishin when she caught him looking at her unkempt black shoulder length hair. It wasn't a help to the mood that Ahab periodically had to use his harpoon-flail to keep Grimm at bay.

"I doubt the horses got any sleep last night", Pandora said sadly as she stroked her white filly calmingly.

"I don't think any of us did", Seishin pointed out.

"Yeah, but you don't have to carry the horse on your back for the rest of the day!", Pandora snapped at him, before immediately regretting it and muttering an almost silent, "sorry".

After that, no one tried talking to Pandora for the rest of the morning. They knew that it was better to let her wake up properly unless you wanted your head bitten off. Not that the others were much better in Seishin's opinion.

Yonsa was eerily silent and tucked away inside his cloak. Whenever someone spoke to him, all they would get in return would be an almost non-existent series of grunts that Lafiel somehow knew how to understand and translate.

Lafiel on the other hand seemed more on edge than Seishin had ever seen her. Her eyes kept darting from place to place without lingering on anything. It was as if she expected the ground to suddenly spew forth Grimm.

That wasn't the case however, and if anything, the Grimm attacks became less prevalent during the day than they had been the day before. The only explanation for it, to Seishin's mind, was that they had simply begun emptying out the area of Grimm.

That thought did brighten his mood, if only a little.

It wasn't until well past noon that Ahab signalled for them to stop and dismount at a clearing in the trees.

"Does he want to have lunch _now_? At this point, we might as well eat a little in the saddle and keep going until evening", Lafiel wondered aloud.

Seishin wasn't in favour of that idea, but was intercepted by Ahab saying, "we are stopping for now. There are some tracks a little away that I want to investigate, but you are to remain here and guard the horses. You can eat a little while I'm away, but don't get too comfortable."

"Sir. I would like to go with you", Seishin requested, hoping to get a better look at how a real legend operated.

"That won't be necessary", Ahab told him curtly, "just stay here until I return and try not to lose any of the horses while I'm away."

And with that, he disappeared into the bushes with only his weapon at his side and his red and golden cloak billowing behind him.

"So much for learning from the best and brightest", Pandora muttered with a dark look when she was sure that Ahab was too far away to hear, "we may as well be his pack horses for all he cares."

"That's not true", Lafiel objected to her surprise, before following it up with a snort, "pack horses don't take night watches."

"Heh, true", Pandora snorted in agreement.

Seishin wanted to argue the notion, but he didn't know how. The sting of rebuttal still clouded his mind and made him unable to concentrate on the ways he had guided them.

"Hey Yonsa, what does our food situation really look like?", Lafiel questioned her partner before Seishin had a chance to find good arguments.

"Unless we are running into a supply depot or the Bullhead in the next clearing, then not good", Yonsa said with a dry chuckle.

"What is 'not good'? Be specific please", Lafiel pressed.

"Remember last night's dinner?", Yonsa asked to which they all nodded with some confusion, "that was the last of our lunch rations. After that, we only have rations for today's dinner and tomorrow's breakfast. Oh, and whatever remains of the apples we didn't eat last night."

"Wait what!?", Lafiel and Pandora exclaimed at the same time. The news shocked Seishin too.

"Are you telling us that we are nearly out of food, and only find out about it now?", Lafiel asked incredulously.

"Well, I did tell you all about it four days ago", he pointed out calmly and reached for a water bottle.

"You seem remarkably okay with this? I had thought you would be more up in arms over this", Lafiel said with suspicion clear in her voice.

"Oh, I am troubled by this", Yonsa said calmly and took a swig of the flask, "and if Ahab doesn't give me free rein to go foraging by the time we make camp, along with a vow not to push on until we have found some food that lasts us a good while, then I'm going to mutiny."

"You're going to mutiny?", Lafiel asked disbelievingly, though Seishin didn't know why.

"Yeah", Yonsa agreed with a shrug, "what is he going to do? Send me back to Beacon, where there is plenty of food and teachers to tell of this massive failure of a mission? If he can summon a Bullhead to pick us up, then it is problem solved, and if he can't, then I see no reason to follow his directions any further."

"This mission isn't a failure", Seishin objected to everyone's surprise.

"It is", Yonsa said with finality, "we are almost out of food, have seen no hair of our prey and even if we had food enough to backtrack at the same pace that we got here, then we would still be way overdue in returning."

"I'm with Yonsa on this one", Lafiel backed up her partner, "this charade has gone on long enough. If we don't stop it now, then it might be too late."

"And you?", Seishin asked his partner.

"I don't want to call this mission a failure, and I like the thought of mutinying even less", Pandora grudgingly said with her eyes scanning the campsite in one quick motion, "but…I agree. We cannot continue on as we have. Something _must_ change."

"So what, we are going to attack him when he comes back? He is a veteran Huntsman with more experience than all of us put together. Surely he knows what he is doing", Seishin argued.

"Nothing like that", Lafiel denied with a warning look towards Yonsa that he hadn't been meant to see, "we are just going to stop blindly doing his bidding unless he properly explains his reasoning and we find that satisfactory. He cannot force us to-"

She stopped midsentence as a loud crash alerted them of movement within the forest. Years of experience had them all lined up in combat formation within seconds of the sound reaching them. Seishin was at the front, ready to stop anything that came charging at them. Pandora and Lafiel stood at each of his sides, ready to follow through once Seishin had broken their opponents' momentum, and Yonsa was in the back, ready to be either support or attack on a single word from Lafiel.

Not a moment later, a great white ball tore through a tree and directly towards them. Seishin jumped aside on instinct, all thoughts of stopping it abandoned. The ball tore through where he had been standing only a moment earlier and only stopped rolling at the edge of the clearing.

 _The others!_ , Seishin thought frantically and searched for them. Lafiel and Pandora were both lying face first in the ground on either side of where the ball had rolled through, and Yonsa was trying to regain his balance near the edge of the clearing. A quick glance at his diminished aura level confirmed that he had used his Semblance to escape.

Before they had time to recover, the ball rolled out into something that Seishin could best describe as the unholy offspring between a Deathstalker and a Boarbatusk. Its body was shaped much like a Deathstalker, except that it had no tail and its head was filled with snarling teeth. Its entire upper body was covered in interlocking plates of white bone armour.

"The fuck is that?", Yonsa cursed, copying Seishin's own thoughts.

A shot rang out from beyond the clearing, followed by a harpoon with a metal chain barrelling towards the Grimm before bouncing harmlessly off the armour. The harpoon was pulled back and caught on to an edge of one of the plates, propelling Ahab forward and on top of the Grimm.

Once atop of it, he tried stabbing it to little effect. When that didn't work, Ahab moved to stab it between the plates, but the Grimm had had enough of him by then. It rolled back into a ball and started barrelling towards the centre of the clearing.

Ahab had the choice between staying on and being crushed in the roll, or letting go of his perch and jump off. He chose the latter, but just as he did so, the Grimm unfolded and used its claws to grab hold of his left leg.

The sound of metal screeching and being torn apart could be heard as it crushed the mechanical leg and then threw Ahab into a tree with enough force to break his aura and knock him out. If the legendary Ahab Aodhfin had been taken out so easily, then what chance did they have?

Bang!

The telltale sound of Yonsa's sniper going off was followed by a hit directly to the Grimm's head that bounced off as easily as the harpoon had. Having drawn its attention, the Grimm was just about the charge him when twin machinegun fire hit it from the side.

The bullets bounced off as uselessly as everything else, but they did make it stop its charge and face the new opponent. Lafiel only seemed to realise the mistake after it turned towards her. Yonsa had been at the edge of the clearing with plenty of room to get out of the way, but she was near the centre of it and far closer to the Grimm than what was safe.

Without thinking, Seishin charged at its back and swung Krunch down with all his might. The impact rattled his teeth and nearly made him lose his grip. The Grimm elicited a loud screech of pain, but the white armour was otherwise as undented as it had been before.

With a fury, its right claw swung around in an arch that Seishin only barely had time to block with the shaft of Krunch. Even so, the impact very nearly sent him flying, and if not for more shots ringing out to distract it, then he would surely have been skewered by the second claw.

"Keep it from gaining momentum!", Lafiel shouted, as if it was that easy.

Bang!

Another shot rang out, this time closer to its eyes. If they could just blind it, then they might stand a chance. It also provided Seishin with an opportunity to disengage from the losing contest of strength. Before it could find a new target, Pandora had jumped on its back much like Ahab had, and was furiously trying to burn through the thick armour.

Once he had created some distance between them, he switched Krunch to minigun-mode and opened fire on the head. It would be down to chance if any of his bullets hit the eyes.

Pandora was still clinging on to its back and was burning through her aura at an alarming rate without showing much sign of success. This caused the Grimm to start rolling into a ball again and start charging towards Seishin.

With no choice but to jump off, Pandora jumped and would have been caught in the air like Ahab had if not for using her Semblance to change her direction and propel her away.

"I can't break through it!", she shouted as she landed between Lafiel and Yonsa.

"Fuck", Lafiel cursed, mirroring Seishin's own curse, _if she can't break through the armour, then what can we do even if we manage to blind it?_

Lafiel looked from Yonsa to Pandora and asked, "Yonsa, can you boost her Semblance in any way? Make it stronger?"

"I don't know", Yonsa admitted, "I've never tried it."

"Damn it, now isn't the time to experiment with this", Lafiel cursed again just as the Grimm screeched and charged at them again.

They all managed to duck away safely, but it did stop any further strategizing.

"Yonsa, Seishin, keep it distracted for a bit", Lafiel ordered and moved towards Pandora.

Yonsa and Seishin both grunted out confirmations and charged towards the Grimm to keep its attention on them. While simply keeping it distracted was easier than trying to inflict damage, Seishin knew that they would tire much sooner than the Grimm, and it only took one mistake.

Yonsa darted around it and mostly used his spear to jab at exposed joints, while doing everything he could to avoid being caught by it. Seishin wasn't as fast as Yonsa, but he was strong enough to deflect most attacks and Yonsa's constant irritations kept the Grimm from focusing all of its attention on him.

"Seishin, switch with Pandora", Lafiel's voice rang out followed by a short black and red shape barrelling towards the Grimm with flames dancing at her fingertips.

Seishin fell back as Yonsa and Pandora both started darting around it like two particularly annoying flies that just wouldn't leave you alone.

"Alright listen up", Lafiel started, "the plan is that I will draw its attention in a moment and lure it to the edge of the clearing. Once there, it will have to turn around out of the ball, and Yonsa will then start firing on it to draw its attention again. Once that happens, you are to rush in from the side and flip it on its back, but don't start flipping it before my mark. Pandora will then jump on it and deliver the final blow. Got it?"

"I can't lift that thing", Seishin objected.

"Yonsa will boost you with his Semblance", Lafiel explained.

"Even with that help, I don't have enough strength to do that", Seishin argued. He knew his own strength very well, and even if he didn't exactly know what it was when Yonsa boosted him, he knew that it was far too small for this task.

"This won't be like the other time. Since Yonsa only needs to keep you boosted for a second or less, he can increase your strength by much more. This is our best shot, trust us", Lafiel explained in a hurry.

"I will", Seishin promised. Even if he didn't fully believe in the plan, he trusted that his teammates knew what they were doing.

"Good, then get in position over there while I signal the others", Lafiel said and pointed with one hand while the other was hovering over her earpiece.

Seishin got into position and only a short time later, he saw Pandora and Yonsa both retreating back as Lafiel opened fire on the Grimm with her twin machineguns. With the other two nuisances gone, the Grimm faced towards her and started charging.

Lafiel sprinted towards the edge, leading it right there, before jumping to the side and into the undergrowth at the last second. As she did so, Yonsa's sniper rounds starting hitting the Grimm's back. With its previous target no longer in sight and a new nuisance firing upon it, the Grimm unrolled and started turning.

Seishin rushed at its side as quickly and quietly as he could, so as to not draw its attention prematurely. The continued covering fire helped with that. When he got to its side, he let Krunch fall to the ground, bent his knees and put both his hands below the armour plates for a better grip.

The sudden twitch was enough indication that the Grimm had felt his touch and was planning to do something about it in a moment.

"Now!", Lafiel screamed.

Seishin strained his arms and legs to lift it, but nothing happened. Then, suddenly, a surge of raw power flooded through him. It was more power than he had ever imagined possible. Suddenly, the Grimm wasn't some immovable object anymore.

First, the legs on Seishin's side slipped off the ground, and then the other side. Instead of just flipping it over, he actually sent it flying a good metre or two into the air. As soon as his hands let go of the Grimm, Seishin felt the surge of power disappear as suddenly as it had come.

The earth shook as it crashed back into the ground on its back, but before it had time to wiggle or even attempt to right itself, Pandora was atop of it. Blue flames danced from her as she tore through its soft underbelly with one great blast of fire after another.

The heat from her flames was so great that Seishin could feel it even from where he stood, but Pandora pressed on and continued her barrage on the screeching Grimm.

When Pandora finally stopped, it was only because the Grimm had long since stopped twitching and was starting to evaporate. A look down at his Scroll showed that she had very nearly depleted all of her aura, and Yonsa had not even a sliver left of his on the display.

"We did it. We fucking did it!", Lafiel exclaimed in jubilee, soon followed by similar outbursts from the others.

"Quick, get in front of it. I want a picture of us standing at its corpse", Pandora instructed and drew out her Scroll.

The others quickly shuffled together to be in the picture with her, while also trying to show as much of the Grimm as possible. None of them had ever seen anything like it in their textbooks, so this might very well be the only evidence of one in existence. And they had _killed_ it! _Them!_

"Take more pictures. As many as we can get before it disintegrates too much", Seishin suggested and soon everyone had their Scrolls out and were taking pictures of it from all angles.

They took wide shots to show the scale, with Seishin standing in the picture for reference, and close-ups of the head and armour plating. It wasn't possible to get any good shots of its back since they couldn't turn it over again.

A groan of pain stopped their celebratory moment and alerted them that Ahab was awake. As soon as he heard it, Yonsa yanked his spear out of the ground and started stalking towards the crippled Huntsman with a murderous look in his eyes.

"No, no, wait, wait, wait", Lafiel objected and followed him, though Seishin noted that she didn't physically stop him as she easily could have, "Stop, now!"

Yonsa turned around with a glare and pointed an accusatory finger at the still groaning Ahab, "he used us as bait! All this time, he was planning on using whoever came here as bait!"

Had he? Seishin couldn't believe that it was true, but as he thought about it, there were too many things that didn't make sense. Why had he appeared just after the Grimm had attacked, and why had they stopped here in the first place? Not to mention, this mission had been rated suitable for first years. There was no way that first years would have survived what they had just been through.

"I know!", Lafiel agreed with a dirty look at Ahab, "but killing him won't solve anything, and it will only bring more problems for us."

At this point, Ahab was beginning to come to and was staring around confused at the commotion. When his eyes fell on what remained of the Grimm, he let out a small gurgling sound and tried to stand up, but without the use of his left leg, he just fell over.

"We are going to have words later, but firstly, do you have a way to call in help?", Lafiel demanded to know.

Reluctantly, Ahab tore his gaze away from the disintegrating corpse and looked up at Lafiel with Yonsa at her side. Strange as it sounded, Seishin thought that he might actually have looked scared for a moment before he schooled his features.

"Now listen here young lady", he started to say before Lafiel cut him off.

"No, you listen to me! Unless you want to be left here with your leg torn up and nothing to carry you, then you are going to do _exactly_ as I say from now on", she said in a determined voice ,"you just endangered _my team_ , and if not for _our_ efforts, we would all be dead! When we get back to Beacon, I am going to _personally_ make sure that everyone knows of what happened here. When they learn that you wanted to use _first years_ as _bait_ , you are going to glad if they only strip you of your Huntsman license and throw you in jail for wilful negligence. Until that time, I hold your life in my hands, and don't you forget it. So, as I was asking, do you have a way to call in help or anything that might help our situation?"

Looking thoroughly chastised, Ahab could only manage to mutter a small no without even daring to look up as he did so.

" _Useless_ ", Lafiel muttered in disgust and began stalking back to Seishin and Pandora with Yonsa following at her heels.

"Since that thing doesn't have anything to contribute, we need a new plan of action. Any suggestions?", Lafiel asked the team, "Yonsa, you talked about setting up camp and hunting before. Is that an option?"

"I wouldn't count on it. You tried it yourself once, so you should know that foraging for one person to live off of is hard enough, let alone 5 people", Yonsa denied with a shake of his head, "that said, it is something that we should do regardless going forward. It can supplement the food storage, but we need something to supplement first."

"Alright, any ideas?", Lafiel accepted the input and looked around at first Pandora, then Seishin and lastly Yonsa.

It was a habit that she had picked up over the years. Whenever there was a question that could most likely be answered by one person in their team, she would give the others a chance to speak first before ending on whom she expected would answer it.

Yonsa cast a look back at where Ahab was huddled on the ground, before sweeping across where their horses were tied up and their remaining supplies had been laid down. It was pure luck that they hadn't been trampled in the fight. Seishin didn't think he had been meant to see it, but he also caught Yonsa very briefly looking at Lafiel before swallowing.

"We could kill Ahab's horse and leave him here", he suggested quietly.

"No, he is coming with us back to Vale", Lafiel said with finality, "give me another option, please."

"…We kill Pandora's horse. Wait, hear me out!", Yonsa said with both hands up in a pacifying position, "killing one of the horses should provide us with enough meat to last us a good while even if we don't find something to supplement it with. I chose yours because it is the smallest, so it can carry the least weight, but should fulfil our food requirements for now."

"If we only have four horses, then how are we going to get back in any decent amount of time?", Lafiel questioned, but didn't refute the idea out of hand. To Seishin, she may as well have approved it already and was now only asking about specifics.

"One of us is going to have to keep up on foot. We can't do the breakneck speed of the last few days, but if we switch who is the runner throughout the day, then we should be able to keep a good pace", Yonsa explained more relaxed now that his idea was practically approved, "that is another reason for killing Pandora's filly. She can ride the others fine, but it might buckle under the additional weight of dividing our supplies out over only four horses and having to have a heavier rider on top of it. The most pressing issue is preserving the meat. I suggest smoking it, but it well take a day or two with so much, and that is not even considering if we also want to throw in a bit of flavour to spice it up."

"Alright, let's do it", Lafiel said after having extracted a reluctant nod from Pandora, "we can't use this place as a camp, especially not if other Grimm heard our battle and are on their way. Therefore, our first order of business should be to find a defendable campsite with easy access to fresh water, where we can stay for a while."

With their purpose settled, they quickly set about gathering their things, helping Ahab onto his horse and then leaving the clearing in search of a place to camp out. Pandora held the reins of Ahab's horse with Seishin covering the other side of it in case he tried something. They had also taken his weapon from him, and Seishin had no doubts that Lafiel would have tied him up if his left leg hadn't been crushed. There was no illusion that he was not their prisoner.

Later that night, they finally managed to find a campsite, where they spent two and a half days curing meat and gathering other supplies that might be useful, before they set off back the way that they had come. Since they only had a rough idea of where they were, and that the Scroll reception was shoddy at best, it wasn't possible to call in a Bullhead until they stumbled upon a village nearly two weeks later.

When they finally got back to Beacon, it was to a mixed reception. On the one hand, they had managed to defeat the Grimm and get records of what it looked like and how it attacked, but on the other, they were also accusing a highly renowned member of the Huntsman community of quite serious charges.

The records of the Grimm helped bolster their point that he had at the very least lied about the danger of the mission, especially when combined with the seeming recklessness displayed by Ahab as a leader. Unfortunately, they couldn't provide hard evidence that he had used them as bait. It was his word against theirs, and none of their versions was capable of proving intent on his part, so in the end, his only punishment was the stripping of his Huntsman license along with community service for needlessly endangering students.

After the sentencing, each of his teammates had approached Seishin with comforting words. It wasn't their idol that they had just tried to incarcerate after all. Seishin had thanked them for their support, and quietly refused Yonsa's offer of burning Ahab's house down, which he later insisted had been a joke. What Seishin wanted now wasn't to wallow in self-pity at having idolized such a man, but rather to train and become the Huntsman that Ahab never had been.

One that the students of his combat school might one day look up to without remembering the name Ahab Aodhfin had ever existed.


	16. Welcome to Atlas

Hello again. I'm _finally_ getting to the Atlas arc, which turned out longer than I expected(what else is new?). Instead of the usual all in one release, I have decided to release the first two chapters of the arc since they have a significantly different focus than the latter two. Enjoy.

* * *

 **Welcome to Atlas**

 **Lafiel  
** As the shuttle side opened, a gust of cold wind mixed with snow blew through the compartment. The sudden drop in temperature made Lafiel shiver. If any of her teammates felt the sudden cold as well, they didn't show it.

Seishin was towering over all of the other students wrapped in a heavy brown jacket. Some, especially those close to him, looked up at him desiring the warmth that he radiated. Others, like Pandora in her form fitting black and red fur trimmed coat and black leather gloves, either didn't feel the chill or pretended not to.

Beside her, Yonsa stood wrapped in his cloak and with a scarf covering half his face. She knew from earlier that morning that he was covered in multiple warm layers beneath the cloak. Lafiel doubted that he had felt the cold as she had, and if he had, no one would have been able to see it under all those layers.

"Carry on, students. We don't got all day", Oobleck's voice sounded from behind, quickly followed by a throng of students shuffling to get out of the shuttle.

After dumping their stuff in the Atlas dorms, they decided to explore the city. Lafiel went ahead with Pandora, while the boys stayed behind for a bit to have lunch at the school.

In many ways, Atlas wasn't as she had expected it to be. For one, there was far more colour and life in the streets. It wasn't like she had expected a completely sterile white-coloured city that had robots at every corner, but she had thought it would be more downplayed.

Here and there, she could see buildings in every colour. One was bright red and another a forest green. It was almost as if the Atlesians tried to defy the white snow that lay over everything by painting their buildings in every colour but white.

Surprisingly, the walkways and roads were all completely cleared of snow. When she asked Pandora about it, she explained that the extensive Atlesian heating system ran underneath all the roads and kept them just warm enough to melt any snow that dropped on them.

"That has to be expensive though", Lafiel commented.

"It's probably more expensive to have to clear them of snow every few hours", Pandora answered, "plus, with how much they are heating all the houses anyway, I don't think it would be that big of an increase in costs."

"You seem to know a lot about Atlas", Pandora noted while they were waiting for the light to turn green at an intersection.

"Yeah, my father often does business here and he took me along sometimes", Pandora answered casually, "I still prefer northern Anima though. It has better skiing resorts."

As someone that hadn't even seen snow before coming to Vale, Lafiel wouldn't know about that. Instead of saying so however, she just nodded silently, as if she knew of and agreed with her teammate's observation.

They continued walking and talking for a while longer, not really caring where they went. It was nice simply relaxing with her friend while window-shopping. Lafiel wondered why they had never done something similar back in Vale. It was something she intended to rectify when they got home.

Across the street, a shop painted in light green and yellow colours with a large glass panel front caught her attention. Mannequins in elaborate Mistralian dresses filled the glass façade, which reminded her that she had yet to decide on a dress for the Vytal dance.

"Hey, can we check out that shop?", she asked and pointed at the shop in question.

"Sure!", Pandora eagerly agreed and linked Lafiel's arm with hers.

The inside of the shop was filled with more than just the dresses that had been on display. There was regular clothes that was clearly inspired by Mistralian design patterns, but which had the added padding necessary for living in Atlas, and there was even a men's section as well.

Before long, Pandora had found herself both a new pair of gloves and an elaborate hairpin. Lafiel was trying out jackets, having long since decided that her current one wouldn't do in Atlas' colder weather, but her eyes kept returning to the dresses in the window.

A vibration from her pocket alerted her of an incoming message. When she looked at it, it was from Yonsa, who was asking where they were and if they wanted to meet up. Lafiel quickly texted him back their location, to which he replied almost instantly with a thank you and that they would be bringing two others along.

"The boys?" ,Pandora questioned curiously as she noticed Lafiel's furrowed brow.

"Yeah, they are coming here…and they are bringing two along?", Lafiel answered.

"Someone from Beacon?", Pandora questioned curiously.

"He would have just said their names if that was the case…I think", Lafiel answered, not completely sure herself. Did he even know anyone at Beacon besides them?

"Locals then. They certainly didn't waste any time", Pandora commented with a nod as she studied another hairpin.

"What do you mean?", Lafiel asked confused.

"Scouting out the competition", Pandora clarified, as if it was obvious, "the thought had occurred to me as well, but I ultimately decided that it would be of little value compared with simply observing their training here at Atlas."

The thought hadn't even occurred to Lafiel, and she was supposed to be the team leader. She would have to up her game if she wanted to continue being worthy of that position.

Not long after, the doorbell chimed, signalling the entry of four people to the shop. Besides her two teammates stood two women clad in white and green form fitting coats. It was at times like these that Lafiel wished that her tail didn't prohibit her from buying any long coats that weren't tailored to her.

"And this is Lafiel Lamprose, our team leader, and Pandora Azura", Seishin quickly presented them towards the woman in the white coat, "Lafiel, Pandora, meet Stirling and Freesia. They are students at Atlas that decided to help show us around", he continued while gesturing to the woman in white first and then the woman in green.

Stirling had a kind face with short-cropped blonde hair and green eyes, while Freesia looked decidedly bored and kept playing with the end of her black chest-length braid. Neither of them seemed particularly tall, even when not comparing with the enormous Seishin.

"It's a pleasure to meet you", Stirling said with a smile and stepped forward to shake Lafiel's hand. As she did so, her left leg gave a metallic sound that instantly drew Lafiel's eyes to it, even as she was already reaching forward to grab the outstretched hand.

"That was fast", Stirling commented seemingly impressed while shaking Lafiel's hand, "people usually don't notice it right away."

As she said so, she drew up her pant leg just enough to show a shining metallic ankle above her black shoes. Before Lafiel had a chance to comment, she had moved on to Pandora and been replaced by Freesia.

"So, how did you come to know our two teammates?", Lafiel asked after the introductions were over and done with.

"We found them searching for the cafeteria and decided to help them find it. After that, we fell into talk and ended up offering to show them around town", Stirling replied as she returned to standing between Freesia and Seishin.

"How kind of you. Much appreciated", Pandora said with just enough hint of sarcasm to make Lafiel wonder if she had actually heard it.

"It was nothing. They have been great fun", Stirling replied happily without noticing the eye roll that her friend was doing behind her, "in fact, I think we could have spent the entire day together without noticing if Yonsa hadn't reminded us that you had plans to meet up."

The comment instantly drew Lafiel's attention to Yonsa, who was practically begging her with his eyes. Before she could comment on it however, Stirling continued on, "I like this store. It is always so full of exotic designs. Have you already found everything you wanted, or do you want help looking?"

Lafiel briefly eyed the navy blue jacket that she had decided upon before her eyes returned to the dresses at the window. This did not go unnoticed by Stirling however, who was quick to convince her that she really did need a new dress for the dance. The woman's powers of persuasion would be terrible if ever used in the wrong hands.

"How do I look?", Lafiel asked as she emerged from the dressing room. For effect, she gave a small twirl as well, though she had to make sure that her tail remained between her legs to avoid lifting the back of the dress entirely, not to mention tripping on it.

Her dress had slits going down alongside her legs, which made the lower fabric swoosh out a bit when she did her twirl. The dress itself was made of royal blue lace broidered as flowers on vines with a golden edge along the slits. It had a black underdress beneath it that stopped just short of her shoulders, giving a hint of the skin beneath the lace. Around her neck, there was a small collar of blue lace with soft black cloth beneath and golden edges. The collar was fastened with a broche made of four golden discs.

"Great", Stirling said with a small clap, followed by similar sentiments from her friend.

Pandora had already given her honest opinion when she had helped Lafiel into the dress, which Lafiel trusted more than the words of two people she had just met.

When she turned to where the boys had sat down to get their opinion, she noted that Seishin's eyes briefly sought Stirling's, before he also admitted that she looked good in the dress. It was something she would have to look into later.

Yonsa had gotten out of his cloak and scarf and had been looking out on the street when she got out, but the others' exclamations had focused his attention back towards her. Upon first seeing her, his eyes swept up and down her, before he managed to focus his attention on her face.

"Well?", she said with a small smirk.

"…You look ready for a party", he answered after a brief pause.

"That _was_ the intention", Lafiel commented with a bit of mirth seeping into her voice.

Satisfied with how her dress looked, the only hurdle left was to find out if she could get it tailored to allow her tail to come out the back. In truth, she had known that she would buy it since Pandora had approved of it. As her mother had always said, "only ask fashion advice from those you trust and in private. At any other time, they may just not want to offend you."

After getting out of the dress and receiving assurances from the sales lady that she would be able to tailor the dress in time for the dance, Lafiel returned to where she had left the boys and their new friends, only to find only Yonsa remaining.

"Where did the others go?", Lafiel asked him confused.

"Seishin wanted to see some more of the city before dinner, and Stirling offered to show him around. Freesia said something about her other teammates wanting to spar and left as well", Yonsa answered her quickly.

"And you didn't want to be the third wheel again, I presume?", Lafiel guessed.

"Fourth wheel, actually", Yonsa corrected her, "and no, I didn't enjoy it much the first time around. Playing chaperone isn't something that seems to appeal to me."

"You could have just tried socializing with Freesia. It might have proved fun", Lafiel pointed out, despite knowing the futility of it.

"I didn't see the point", he answered neutrally, "she was a friend of my teammates' friend, and we both knew why we were there."

Lafiel sighed. Yonsa could be friendly and charming if he had to, but by and large, he only was so towards those that he thought he might need to work with or for in the foreseeable future. Being a student from a different school on a different continent, Freesia likely fitted none of his criteria.

Just then, Pandora's Scroll started ringing.

"Yes….yes, I am available", Pandora muttered into the phone, "I can be there as soon as I get a cab. Okay, see you soon. Bye."

"My parents just called. They are in town and want to take me out for coffee", Pandora explained, "I'm afraid I will have to cut our trip short, but I promise that I will make it up to you later."

"It's fine. If my parents were here, I would have done the same", Lafiel brushed away the implied apology.

"Thanks. Also, could you pay for my things and carry them back with you? I don't want to show up with shopping bags after just one day in town", Pandora asked with a nod of thanks, "I'll cover the costs as soon as I get back."

"Sure", Lafiel agreed after quickly making an estimation of how much extra it would cost versus how much she had left on her account.

"Thanks. Again", Pandora said with a smile as she put on her coat, "I promise I'll make it up to you."

With that settled, Pandora hurried out of the store and hailed a cab. Lafiel turned to where Pandora had left her intended purchases and began to gather them up along with the navy blue jacket that she had also decided to buy.

"Besides Oobleck, we didn't bring any staff from Beacon, did we?", Yonsa asked her out of the blue.

"Not to my knowledge. Why?", Lafiel answered confused at his question.

"One of the Beacon janitors was outside the shop when we arrived, and he only just left", Yonsa explained.

"Ah, that might be her guard", Lafiel said as she tried to find the person in question, "since summer, she has suspected that her parents might have given her one despite her protests, but we haven't seen any new faces on the staff so we weren't sure."

She eventually had to give up searching for him and was just about to ask Yonsa which janitor it was, when a thought struck her, "wait, can _you_ recognize staff members on sight?"

"I'm not blind, you know", Yonsa said, obviously taking offense to her suggestion, "I _do_ remember what people I meet look like and sound like. Just not often what their names are and the like. Besides, he is the guy in charge of cleaning our dorm, so we tend to run into each other often enough."

"Oh…sorry", Lafiel murmured slightly embarrassed, before regaining the confidence in her voice, "still, you should work on your social skills. That Professor Ozpin allowed us to continue as a team is a big sign of improvement on your part, but you shouldn't rest on your laurels just because of it. This dance is a good chance for you to interact with other students like a normal person. Or what, were you considering just standing silently in the corner the entire night?"

In response, Yonsa made a non-committal noise that was somewhere between agreement and a rumble. This merely confirmed what Lafiel had been suspecting, and was not shocking enough to interrupt her finishing her purchases. Pandora's stuff got their own receipt for ease of finding out how much she owed Lafiel.

It was as they were about to leave the store that a thought struck Lafiel and made her stop mid-step. Yonsa stopped slightly ahead of her and looked back with a questioning look as to why she had stopped.

"You are coming to the dance, right?", Lafiel asked him suspiciously.

"Hmm?", Yonsa made a noise without answering.

"Yonsa Chén Zhuáng De, you will tell me right this moment that you were not planning on skipping the dance", she demanded with her hands on her hips.

"You said it yourself. I wouldn't know what to do in such a place", Yonsa tried excusing himself, knowing the futility of denying her charge.

"Which is why you should take this opportunity to practise", Lafiel pointed out.

"I also cannot dance", Yonsa continued trying to make excuses.

"No one can at first", Lafiel argued, "stick with me and I will teach you as best as I can. Actually, scratch that. I am taking you to the dance, so you better be ready not to embarrass me."

Sensing that this line of reasoning wouldn't work, Yonsa switched to a new one, "I don't have a suit to wear. I can't show up in a school uniform or combat gear."

"This was how you planned to get out of it, wasn't it? Play along until the night and then argue that since you didn't bring a suit, you wouldn't be able to join us anyway", Lafiel reasoned out, before a thought struck her which made her smirk, "well, luckily for you, we are in a clothing shop with a men's section, so hang up your cloak and get ready to start modelling for me."

The two of them spent the next hour finding a suit that would both fit him and remain inside his price range. The only way she could get him to cough up even a decent amount for a new suit was to reason with him that if he got a good one, then he would be able to reuse it in similar events for years to come. Otherwise, she would have forced him to buy new cheap ones every time.

It was something that she had learned while travelling with him that summer. He wasn't averse to spending more if he believed that the item in question would last him a long time. A good example was his green-sheathed knife that he had fortunately had the forethought to leave in their rooms.

In part because of the shop that they were in, they ended up getting a dark green suit with golden stitch work at the edges and cuffs. Golden embroidery likewise ran up on each side of the chest and over the shoulders to end on the back. Together with it came a vest of similar design and a white dress shirt with no embroidery.

After they had already bought it, Lafiel wondered how it would look to others when they entered dressed to match each other. While not the primary factor, she couldn't deny that she had not considered how well Yonsa's eventual suit would look with her new dress next to it.

Still, that would be a worry for a future day. For now, she had to find a place where they could practise dancing, so that he would not step on her feet at the actual dance.


	17. Steps of the Dance

**Steps of the Dance**

 **Yonsa  
** As Yonsa stood before the mirror, he once again asked himself if he really had to do this. The green and golden suit looked fine, as it had in the store, and his brown hair had been combed back with a gel that he had borrowed from Seishin.

Having his hair being this stiff was a new experience for him that nagged at his attention every time he quickly turned his head, and he wasn't quite sure whether he liked the amount of gloss that his hair now had. When he had asked him, Seishin had said it was fine, but Yonsa still thought it looked a bit much.

None of this concerned him overly though. Who cared if dozens of strangers thought he looked weird? He wouldn't have to see most of them ever again after the festival was over. Well, he had to see those from Beacon again afterwards, but their opinions didn't really matter either.

What did matter was how this night would affect his relationship with his teammates. Who knew what would happen if he screwed something up badly tonight? From what information he had been able to find on the Scroll, it seemed like dances such as these were considered important milestones that could make or break relationships.

Was Lafiel expecting something to happen tonight? Worse, did she expect him to do something, and would she be disappointed if he didn't do it? What if he did do something, and it wasn't what she wanted? How would she react then?

 _How angry would she be if I cancelled now?_ , he thought to himself. The answer was obvious; _very._

She had invested far too much time and effort into learning him to dance to not feel slighted by him cancelling at the last minute. Not to mention that he had given her his word. Whatever else, he liked to think that he upheld his word. Most of the time, anyway. It wasn't like he was going to die for it.

 _Everything would have been so much easier if I had just bitten the bullet and followed Seishin out_ , he mused to himself, not for the first time.

The unusual usage of the phrase made him chuckle slightly. In Vale, the phrase was meant to get people to do something unpleasant to get to a desired goal, but back in Anima, the phrase had a significantly different meaning more attuned to relieving oneself of unpleasantness.

Knock, knock.

"Are you ready yet? Seishin already left", came Lafiel's voice through the door.

Upon hearing it, Yonsa drew a deep breath, cast a last look at the bathroom window that he thought he might fit through, squared his shoulders and marched out to meet his date.

"Finally, I was beginning to worry that you might have run off or something", Lafiel said as he opened the door. Before she could say more, he noted that her eyes travelled up and down him, lingering slightly at his hair. Her mouth had a small smile that spoke of liking what she saw, which was followed by a small nod to signal that she had found him acceptable.

She was dressed in her blue and golden dress, which Yonsa noted had been fitted to more snugly hug her form. Her blue and red hair had been styled in large curls that started just below her shoulders, which contrasted well with her red tail with the familiar splash of white at the tip. The tail itself was moving from side to side just fast enough for it to draw Yonsa's eyes away from her face.

"I wouldn't think of it", Yonsa said half as a response and half just to break the awkward moment.

"Liar", she said without any malice behind it, "but you didn't, and that is what counts. Shall we go?"

"Yes", he answered with a stiff nod and headed for the door, holding it open for her in the process.

This elicited a wry smile from her as she passed him, but luckily no comment. It was embarrassing enough as it was.

 _Just keep calm and detached. As long as you don't think of them as people, it'll be fine_ , he tried to reassure himself as they walked down the hall, _it would of course be better if I sprained my ankle during a dance and had to retire for the night._

Had his partner not been Lafiel, it might have worked too. Unfortunately, he doubted that she would believe it was an accident, and he doubted even more that she would simply let him go even if she did believe him.

Casting a quick look beside him, he noted that she had folded her hands in front of her and adopted a contemplative look. If not for her tail swishing from side to side, she would have been the picture of calm. At least he wasn't the only uncomfortable one. Maybe he could use that to convince her to leave early?

When they finally got to the ballroom, it was truly a sight to behold. The ceiling went up several floors and ended with large arches that had giant glass chandeliers hanging down from them. Balconies filled the walls at every floor, each with its own round table, chairs and lighting.

The centre of the room had been cleared of tables and already had plenty of students dancing in it, while the sides of the first floor had been filled with food tables and chairs to sit in. Light refracted through the chandeliers dotted the floor and everyone on it in every colour of the rainbow.

Even among the crowd, it was easy to spot Seishin on the dance floor, though not his dancing partner. It was not hard to make a guess, however. Yonsa pointed him out for Lafiel, though she had already noticed him herself.

"Would you like something to drink?", Yonsa asked his partner as they left the entrance to let others come through as well.

Lafiel gave him a surprised look at first, but then said that she would like some. While he did that, she would see if she could find a balcony that wasn't in use already to meet up with the rest.

Yonsa nodded and left for the food tables. It seemed that the movies could prove a valuable guideline for getting through this after all.

He wasn't the only one getting stuff from the food tables, and the crowd meant that he had to choose fast to avoid getting pushed around. There was an unsupervised open bowl filled with a red liquid that he immediately ruled out due to the possibility of someone putting something in it. Instead, he chose two bottled drinks at random and got out of there quickly.

Oppressive crowds like those made him long for the vast open expanses beyond the walls, but he quickly quashed those thoughts and moved to a less crowded area to check his Scroll for messages. Lafiel had left him one telling him of an empty balcony that they could use.

The balcony in question was on the third floor, which was far enough up for the mass of people below to barely be noticeable when sitting down. A lamp stood in the middle of the table that could seat eight people all around, and two more lamps were fastened on either side of the door leading up to the balcony.

Together, they provided enough light for seeing each other and moving around without issue, but not enough for reading a book unless you were right by them. Mood lighting, the site had called it.

"I got us these two", Yonsa said and presented her the two bottled drinks to choose from.

Even after checking the names of the drinks, he still had no idea what was in either of them, so it didn't matter which one she took. After inspecting them for a moment, she chose the light green labelled one, leaving him with the one that had a label the colour of which he could only describe as a mix between pink and white.

Opening her drink, she took a swig from it and sighed before turning to look at him with a bemused smile. Having just opened his own, he didn't notice her look before taking a swig from his own. The taste wasn't exactly pleasant, tasting mostly of uncooked elderberries mixed with a syrupy substance that he couldn't quite put his finger on what was.

Upon noticing her almost expectant look, he quietly swallowed and took another swig for good measure before setting the bottle down. It wasn't as if it was the worst tasting thing that he had ever eaten. This made Lafiel sigh dejectedly.

"You can go down to get another if you want", she offered.

"I have already opened this one. It isn't that bad", Yonsa argued.

The choice was easy between simply staying here with this drink and getting into that mob again. Besides, better not to waste a drink merely on being a picky eater.

Instead of continuing the argument, Lafiel took another sip of her drink and looked down at the dancing people. Yonsa mirrored her actions, though the people below didn't really hold his interest.

The awkward silence between them stretched for what seemed an eternity. In other circumstances, Yonsa wouldn't have minded it, but here, it somehow felt like they were supposed to talk to each other. That they hadn't so far only made it more difficult to begin a conversation now.

It occurred to Yonsa that though they had been alone together before, they had always had something that had dictated the conversation topic. At the store, it had been clothes, the dancing lessons had focused on how to improve his dancing, and in that month during the summer vacation, there had been more than enough campfire stories and arguments about trekking to find something to talk about.

What was there to talk about here? People's clothes? He didn't care much about those, and neither did he care who someone came here with or not. He was tempted to ask her for a dance just to break whatever this was, but having just recently gone up here, it felt like admitting defeat somehow.

If there had been a deck of cards, he would have offered to play with her. He knew enough games that she ought to know at least one of them, and if not, then he knew a few simple ones that could easily be explained.

"About tomorrow's mission, what type would you prefer?", Lafiel asked him suddenly, breaking the silence that had reigned between them.

The question caught him off-guard, and he had to take a moment to think of an answer before he could say anything.

"One following a Huntsman outside the walls would be nice", he eventually offered.

"Nice? Isn't it a freezing blizzard out there?", Lafiel asked confused.

"I think it is, which is why it would be interesting to see first-hand how a trained Huntsman deals with it", Yonsa clarified. Who knew, perhaps he could even find something that he could use back home to get in on the winter season.

"I suppose that could be interesting", Lafiel agreed, "but we will have to check with Seishin and Pandora what they want too."

Yonsa didn't have to ask to know why she didn't include herself. He already knew of her plans after Beacon, and none of those included dealing with anything that could be taught in a frozen wasteland like Mantle.

One person reforesting the desert that occupied two thirds of Menagerie, and which was filled with dangerous wild life didn't really seem possible to him. It was as if a single villager had said that they wanted to fell the entire forest of Kabato.

The areas might change slightly over time, but the overall features always remained the same. People simply couldn't transform a desert into a lush environment or a lush environment into a desert at will. It simply took too much effort for any one person to do.

"Speaking of Pandora, where is she? I haven't seen her at all tonight", Yonsa asked in an attempt to keep the conversation going.

"She is here. Her parents wanted her to meet the son of a family friend tonight. I have her ready on speed dial if it goes sour", Lafiel answered and waved her closed Scroll for him to see.

"So she can't date who she wants?", Yonsa asked somewhat insulted on her behalf.

That someone else could control such an important aspect of your life seemed cruel to him. That he hadn't utilized the freedom much in the past himself was besides the point. It was the principle of it.

"She can still go on dates with whomever she likes. She just also has to meet someone her parents arrange for her from time to time", Lafiel quickly started explaining, "she said that while her mother might give her hints of whom it would be best to get along with, the choice would ultimately be hers to make."

"So she is just getting free meals with a stranger from time to time. I think I could live with that", Yonsa commented. Had someone offered such a deal to him before Beacon, he knew for certain that he would have taken it without a second thought.

"I'm sure you could", Lafiel said with a small laugh, before emptying the last of her drink, "this is empty. How about we go for a dance?"

"Sure", Yonsa agreed, quickly finishing his own bottle in the process.

The dance floor was filled with students, but not Seishin anymore. A few stared at her voluminous tail, but her look of challenge was enough to turn away anyone whose gaze she caught.

Lafiel pulled them over to an unoccupied spot and got into position. Seeing her like this, surrounded by people that would judge them if he faltered in his steps, put more pressure on him than he had thought it would. It wasn't their reactions he feared, but her reaction to those reactions. He didn't want to have to look into her eyes and see the hurt in them, or worse yet, pity.

"Relax, you are way too stiff", Lafiel whispered to him after the first few steps.

This only made him tense up even more and focus on the steps that he had to take. As long as he made them in the exact way that she had showed him, he would be fine.

For a while, this seemed to work. That was, until he somehow made a mistake that nearly got them both to fall over each other. Yonsa wasn't sure where he had made the mistake, as he was following her instructions like a metronome.

"Shit", she cursed as she righted herself and brushed some imaginary dust off of her dress, before turning on him, "I know you are nervous, but you have to keep aware of where I'm going too. You can't just focus on your own steps."

"I'll try", Yonsa promised and got into position again.

This time, she resisted starting just enough to let him know that he should just stay as they were.

"If it helps, just imagine that we are practising without anyone else here", Lafiel whispered into his ear, "breathe, and now try again."

Yonsa couldn't get himself to ignore that there were anyone else there. Too many years of always needing to keep an eye on those around him made it impossible. He could tune them out however, being aware of their existence and rough location, but not caring about them as individuals.

"That's better", she whispered, before falling silent again.

They continued like that for a while. Yonsa wasn't sure how long. Time seemed to go different like this. It reminded him of sitting watch during the early hours of the morning.

This close together, he could not help but notice the scent of her perfume. It smelled of summer, of apples and green leaves and so much more. There was a bit of fur smell in there as well, but he didn't think it was part of the perfume.

Eventually, the music changed to a new track and people either began leaving or entering the dance floor. The abrupt change forced Yonsa and Lafiel to look at each other for the first time since they had nearly fell. Neither said anything.

Yonsa wasn't sure what he should do. Should he ask her for another dance, or offer to get them something to drink again? He tried searching for signs in her face as to what she wanted from him, but couldn't find any.

"I should check whether Pandora has texted me", Lafiel broke the silence and began moving off of the floor.

"Yes", Yonsa quickly agreed and followed her, "we should see if Seishin wants to meet up too."

More people would be better. One person following others' lead in a group wasn't as noticeable as when you were just two.

Before he could take two steps, she laid her hand on his arm, which redirected his gaze back to hers, and said, "Yonsa…this was nice."

"You're welcome?", Yonsa wasn't sure that was the correct thing to say, but he blurted it out before he could think too much about it.

By her small smile, she had found it appropriate. Either that, or there was some joke that he was not in on.

They found Seishin with Stirling at his side shortly after meeting up with Pandora and her date for the night. He was a head taller than her and clad in a dark purple suit that fit him so well that it may as well have been made for him alone. Given why he was here, Yonsa guessed that it probably had.

"These are my teammates Lafiel, Yonsa and Seishin", Pandora pointed them out, before arriving on Stirling, "and this is Stirling. She is Seishin's…friend."

"Hello everyone, I'm Tyrian Phoenicia. I'm Pandora's date for the night", he greeted each of them with a small nod.

His voice was smooth as velvet and had an open friendliness in it that could lay to rest any misgivings one might have of him. If not for the expensive suit reminding him of why Tyrian had become Pandora's date, Yonsa would have felt completely at ease with him. Better to be cautious around him for now.

"Should we get a table and some drinks?", Tyrian asked the group, to which everyone quickly agreed.

It was decided that Tyrian and Yonsa would get drinks while the others searched for an empty balcony. Tyrian had offered himself for the task, and Lafiel had offered Yonsa with a snide remark about picking better this time. Yonsa sent her a scowl as they departed, but she only laughed in return.

"So, you and the Faunus girl are together?", Tyrian inquired curiously as they headed for one of the drink tables.

"No, we are just partners", Yonsa quickly denied, not really wanting to discuss the matter further.

"Pardon my assumption. I assumed that since you came to the dance in matching outfits…", he left the rest unsaid.

"We got them at the same place. Here in Atlas, in fact", Yonsa explained, hoping that that would be enough.

"I see", Tyrian murmured as they reached the drink table.

While Yonsa pondered what drinks he should take, secretly hoping that Tyrian would pick first and that he could just copy his choices, Tyrian offhandedly said, "your accent, it is Mistralian if I'm not mistaken. But not from inside Mistral itself, if I was to wager."

"I was born and raised outside the walls for most of my life", Yonsa replied, still waiting for him to make his choices.

"Not just raised though", Tyrian commented as he picked three bottles assuredly, quickly followed by Yonsa picking the same three, "Pandora mentioned that you had been working outside the walls as a courier. My condolences."

Yonsa didn't know whether to accept his condolences or reject them. It seemed offered in good faith, but accepting them could imply that he was to be sorry for the choices that he had made. Instead of answering directly, he murmured something intelligible and left it at that.

What he did know was that he was furious at Pandora for sharing this with her friends, like it was some sort of toy to be passed around. He didn't really mind telling people if there was a reason for them to know, but he _did_ mind others doing it without his knowledge or consent. Especially if it was to someone like Tyrian.

Strangely, Tyrian didn't attempt to start the conversation again on their way back to the others.

When they reached the balcony, the drinks were set on the table and Yonsa quickly took a seat between Seishin and Lafiel. Tyrian took a spot next to Pandora, which placed him just at the periphery of Yonsa's vision.

Lafiel, Pandora, Seishin and Stirling all frowned slightly at the bottles, before quickly taking two of the pairs, leaving only an identical pair left for Yonsa and Tyrian. Yonsa didn't think anything of it until he noticed Lafiel shake her head slightly with a smirk on her lips as he reached for a bottle.

"It's fermented crab", she whispered in his ear just as he was about to take a sip, making him stop mid-motion.

With everyone's eyes resting expectantly on him, Yonsa re-continued the motion and deliberately took a sip of the drink. To say that it tasted bad would have been generous, but he kept it in and lowered the bottle to the table.

As he did so, he noticed that Tyrian had made no move to take the remaining bottle. When asked about it, he merely stated that he didn't really feel up for a drink at the moment, and had only brought the fermented crab in the unlikely case that someone was interested in a non-soft drink.

"Why would they even serve something like that?", Lafiel wondered aloud.

"They are required to serve some alcoholic beverages since no one is underage, but don't really want to", Pandora explained, "serving something that no one would normally drink is their way out of it."

"That's stupid", Lafiel commented, to which the others agreed.

He was still debating whether to actually continue drinking it or not. The bottle wasn't transparent, so he could pretend to drink every now and then, but that would be tantamount to throwing it away, something that was ingrained in him not to do. You ate what you took and drank what you brought, that was the rule.

A small buzzing in his pocket alerted him that he had received a text. However, as Yonsa then found out, trying to read it under the table without anyone noticing was a more difficult task than he had initially thought.

The text was from Lafiel. It simply read, "don't drink it. I don't want to smell it on your breadth for the rest of the night ;)"

Yonsa gave off an involuntary snort of amusement, which he then tried to mask as him holding in a sneeze. The others gave him a weird look at first, but then quickly returned to their previous topic of discussion.

He wasn't entirely sure what exactly they were discussing at the moment, but since no one had asked for his input yet, he figured that it was safe to remain out of the conversation for now. If he was lucky, Tyrian might forget about him with the others making much more of an impression.

The way the light refracted through the chandeliers and moved across the table, walls and everything was a mesmerizing sight. It was something that he could stare at for hours if he had to. His eyes followed the light dots down to the dance floors that he had been on just a short while ago.

Thinking back on it, it really had been nice. While he hadn't been much for dancing in the past, he thought that it might be a hobby worth taking up if it always felt that way. Then again, it might have just as much to do with whom you were dancing with. Yonsa couldn't be sure either way.

His reverie was broken when Seishin and Stirling got up, citing wanting to dance another dance as the cause. Seeing the two of them leave the balcony, Yonsa acted quickly and asked Lafiel if she wanted another dance as well.

Though being somewhat surprised by his offer, she still accepted it. This just left Tyrian and Pandora in the balcony, though from the look that Pandora sent Lafiel, she wished that it was not so.

"What's the occasion?", Lafiel asked him as they made their way out to the dance floor.

"I can't just want another dance?", Yonsa joked half-heartedly, knowing it wouldn't work.

"You can, but that is not why you asked me", Lafiel pointed out with a smile, "you don't like Tyrian?"

"I actually don't mind him", Yonsa replied truthfully, "he seems nice enough."

"Then why did you look like you didn't want to be alone with him after getting us drinks?", she inquired.

"I don't know what to talk about", Yonsa confessed, "and I am also sort of mad at Pandora. She told Tyrian about my past."

"She wouldn't do that if she knew you didn't want her to", Lafiel immediately defended her friend, "besides, I thought you didn't mind people knowing?"

"I don't mind telling people, but I want to be the one that makes the decision", Yonsa growled, "doing so would be like me going out and telling everyone and their mom about what you plan to do after Beacon without consulting you about it at all."

"I suppose I wouldn't like that either", Lafiel admitted, "but I don't see why Pandora would even broach the topic at all. It isn't exactly something to use as a conversation starter."

"I don't care about the why. I just care that it was done", Yonsa grumbled, before a thought occurred to him, "you haven't done something similar, have you?"

Lafiel actually looked hurt at the question, making him want to take it back, but before he could, she guiltily said, "I may have told my parents about some of it last summer when I asked them for advice on how to deal with you. Are you mad?"

"It's fine", he assured her. And it was. That was different, somehow. Besides, she had kept more damning things to herself, so he supposed he could trust her.

"Are you sure?", she asked again.

"Yes, it's really fine", he reassured her, and to make certain it stuck, he continued, "I trust you, Lafiel. Enough to tell you about my Semblance."

He hadn't told anyone of it before. His Semblance had always been the trump card that he could rely on no one else knowing how to counter. Telling her would mean risking her figuring out a way to counter it in a fight, but if he had to succeed as a Huntsman, then he had to learn to trust his teammates eventually. That didn't mean that he had to trust all of them right now though.

"You can't tell the others. Not yet, at least", he asked of her, "I'll tell them eventually, but not right now."

"Okay", she quickly acquiesced.

"My Semblance is the ability to share and use aura, my aura", he told her, "I can increase the strength or speed of myself or someone else, but it costs aura to do so. A lot. And it takes dedicated training to know how to use the increases without stumbling like a drunken buffoon. If I want to, I can also use my aura to fuel the aura shield of someone else. I take the hit and then a little, but it can be worth it…sometimes."

"Oh", Lafiel said, trying to process both what he said and what he meant, "oh…you used it on me, that day, right? I thought I was going to die, but my shield held somehow."

"Yes, I have used it select times in the past on all of you. Not always for your benefit though", Yonsa confessed, hoping that she wouldn't connect the dots about what had happened moments later that day.

"I see…", Lafiel murmured, before falling silent for a moment. When she looked up, it was with renewed determination shining in her eyes, "thank you. For telling me this, and for that day too. I promise that I will keep this secret with me until you are ready to share it with the others."

For some reason, her declaration coupled with that look made Yonsa feel happy inside. Maybe this trust thing was worth taking a risk once in a while after all.

The music chose then to change track, leading to another exchange of people on the dance floor.

"Would you like another dance?", he asked her.

"I would love to", she answered.


	18. The first fight

So, it has been quite a while since I updated this(and wrote this one too). Well, don't you that I didn't warn you about this maybe happening.

* * *

 **The first fight**

 **Pandora  
** _Lockers don't really change across borders_ , she mused to herself.

Sure, the materials changed a bit here and there. Mistral liked using wood as much as possible in theirs, Vale's lockers seemed modern with a tint of nostalgia in them and Atlas' lockers were all steel and white tile. None of that changed the _feel_ of them though. All of them had the feel of anticipation, of nervous sweat before a fight and the exhausted sweat of victory after it. Or maybe that was just her.

She thought of asking Lafiel for her opinion, though only for a second before rejecting the notion entirely. Best not to disturb the other Huntress in case she had some preparation ritual before a fight. At least not on something this frivolous.

This led Pandora to think of their opponents. Strangely, she didn't feel as nervous about the fight as she thought that she should have. The other team were Vacuo trained second years with a good track record, hardly anything to scoff at.

Still, she didn't doubt for even a second that it would be her team that came out on top. Even if their records were good, they weren't _that_ good. She was confident that she could beat their leader and then circle back to help clean up the rest of the team.

"Are you seeing Tyrian again?", Lafiel asked her suddenly, disrupting her thought process.

The question caught her off-guard. Why would Lafiel be interested in that, and why now, weeks after the party?

"I don't plan on it", Pandora answered her truthfully, "why?"

"No reason. I was just curious if you had hit it off with each other", Lafiel replied.

"He wasn't unpleasant to be around", Pandora said diplomatically.

And he hadn't been. He hadn't been _interesting_ either though. She couldn't say that though. Who knew if the walls had ears? It was at times like these that Pandora considered herself fortunate that none of her family's suitors had been Huntsmen so far. It meant that she could use her training and duties to diplomatically put off meeting anyone again for long enough that they got the hint that she wasn't interested, but didn't have their prides hurt by it.

"What did you talk about?", Lafiel inquired.

"This and that. Nothing of any importance", Pandora answered, confused at why her teammate kept digging at the subject.

"How about the team? Did it come up?", Lafiel persisted.

"Not beyond what curtesy demanded", Pandora answered, "why do you suddenly care?"

"So you didn't discuss Yonsa's past then?", Lafiel said relieved.

"No, why would I discuss such a topic on a date of all things?", Pandora asked confused at the accusation that this seemed to have been building to.

"It's nothing. Yonsa just got a bit paranoid after Tyrian said something to him, that's all, it seems", Lafiel explained with a soothing gesture.

 _Oh, right,_ Pandora remembered her friend's warning, "it's one of his hobbies. He likes to figure out what a person does, who they are and what makes them tick, but he doesn't want them to know how he knows. It's mostly harmless fun for him."

"That seems wrong somehow", Lafiel commented.

"Most people do it to some degree", Pandora defended her peer, "he just likes to take it a step further because he is good at it. Once he really starts getting up in the ranks of his dad's firm, it will likely become an invaluable tool for him."

"I suppose so…", Lafiel murmured, before picking up again, "anyway, let's put it out of our mind. We have a match to win."

"I agree", Pandora concurred, happy to let the subject finally die.

Despite what she said, Pandora couldn't completely drop the subject from her thoughts, even as they finally started ascending towards the stage. Why had Lafiel asked her of this, and not Yonsa himself?

 _Could he have asked her to inquire about it?_ , she mused. She hadn't known him to hide his accusations behind another in the past, and she doubted that he would now.

Maybe he hadn't asked Lafiel to inquire about it, but merely vented frustration to her? It would be like her to try and mediate the grievance before it grew into another full-blown fight. Still, that would require him to vent those frustrations to another person, which he hadn't exactly been known for doing in the past.

Had the two of them grown close enough to share that level of trust? They did seem to have bonded sometime during the summer, but Pandora wasn't aware to what extent or what had happened to foster the growth.

She cut her thoughts short when the light of the stadium spilled into her eyes. Now was the time for battle.

Besides her, her teammates stood ready for the battle ahead. Lafiel tense and ready to spring into action in her black and grey jumpsuit, Seishin in his heavy armour with Krunch ready to unleash the first volley upon their enemies when the bell tolled, and finally Yonsa in his cloak that would help conceal him in the foliage on their side. Luck had been on their side in the draw.

"And here we have another two fine teams ready to square off", the announcers spoke as the big screen flashed to life with the aura bars of both teams. Above the bars were the names that it belonged to, and beside it were their emblems, "on the Vale side, team LPYS, and on Vacuo's side, team MRRN!"

It hadn't occurred to her before, but her emblem, a hand with the palm facing up and encased in blue flames, being located between Lafiel's wolf head in a field of wheat and Yonsa's black-cloaked figure with a spear on his back seemed like a story of how a person set fire to a field to scare off a wolf hiding in it. Seishin's noisy hammer didn't fit though.

While the cheers were dying down and the countdown started, Pandora took the time to study the other team. The twins both had their weapons set to the bow setting and were standing on either side of the team. It seemed that they wanted to try exchanging a bit of ranged fire initially, but her team had more to give. The thought of it gave a wry smile to her face.

Just then, the countdown reached zero. Barely any time passed before the air filled with the combined fire of Seishin's heavy minigun and Lafiel's twin wrist-mounted miniguns. Wasting no time to think about it, Pandora surged forward, ducking under both her own team's fire and the other team's return fire.

It helped that Lafiel and Seishin were directing their fire to give her a path, but it didn't stop the occasional friendly fire from bouncing off of her aura, nor the focused fire of the enemy team, from steadily eating away at her aura.

Between the captain's large musket rounds and the twins' arrows, her aura was going down a bit faster than expected. She hadn't thought that they would be this quick in focusing in on her charge. Still, her team's covering fire forced the other team to huddle together behind their captain's large kite shield with its little indent on the side to allow his musket to stick out and fire forward.

When she finally reached the enemy team's formation, the fourth member, a red-haired Faunus with a handheld warhammer with a nasty looking spike at the end in one hand and a short curved dagger in the other, moved to intercept her.

He swung his warhammer down with the spike aimed right where her head would have been if she had not managed to stop a moment before. Without missing a beat, he followed through with his dagger. In the split second that she had stopped, the other team had focused their fire on her and eaten away another chunk of her aura reserves.

When the Faunus tried bashing her with the warhammer again, she was ready for it. Instead of stopping or retreating, she pushed forward and used his own momentum to throw him on his back, before vaulting over the captain's shield and unleashing twin fireballs at the twins.

Bang!

Yonsa's shot rang out loud and clear through the arena. Good, he had finally found a perch to oversee the area and provide sniper fire from. From the lack of stray bullets going around the shield, Pandora knew that her other teammates had taken the opportunity to focus their fire on her downed opponent, and not a moment later, the buzzer indicating his defeat rung aloud.

"And Mr. Red is out!", the commentator said informed the audience, before elaborating with sympathy in his voice, "the combined fire of Team LPYS is sure to leave a few marks tomorrow."

"Napa!", one of the twins yelled out, before their captain yelled, "switch, Deathstalker!"

Barely a moment passed between his command and the twins switching their bows to spear setting and then immediately scattering to either side. Pandora knew enough not to try pursuing either of them, and besides, she still had the captain in mind.

The captain had used the moment to escape from behind her, and was now backing heavily backwards towards the cliffs with his shield held at the ready and his musket firing stray shots towards her teammates. While not damaging, the shots did help momentarily stopping Seishin's and Lafiel's gunfire.

Pandora rushed towards him with the sound of Yonsa's sniper still rhythmically going off behind her. The action forced him to direct his attention back to her. While his musket balls did a lot of damage, their size and shape made them slower, which combined with the lowered firing rate made it possible to dodge most of them without issue.

"Despite a 3 on 2 advantage not a single hit has landed on either of them", the commentator said in the background, "the Reed twins' Semblance truly shows it worth here. For the spectators, their Semblance allows them to coordinate their actions nearly perfectly when-"

Pandora tuned him out in favour of focusing on the enemy in front of her. She could circle back later. Once again, she tried rushing the captain, with the aim of vaulting over his shield and attacking him from behind. She had tried grabbing the shield once, only to get electrocuted, and the other time she had tried storming him, he had used the cliffs to block her approach.

All in all, he was putting up more of a fight than she had thought, though he wasn't damaging her to any meaningful degree while doing it. If it came down to it, she would still win this battle of attrition.

This time, she prefaced her charge by sending small fireball towards his unshielded feet. The attack made him stumble a bit, before regaining his footing. By that time however, she had already closed the distance enough to render it near impossible for him to hit her with his musket.

She allowed a smirk to grace her lips as she moved close enough see his face below the shield. Instead of the panicked expression that she had expected, there was only stoic determination. Just then, his musket let out a torrent of flames that threatened to burn her and forced her to retreat _yet again_.

From the smell, she could guess that her armour had gotten singed a bit, though its dark colour was sure to negate any visual indication of such. Maybe a bit on the golden edges or the red cloth underneath, if she was unlucky.

This was too much! She _would_ not be foiled like this another time! Fire was _her_ weapon, and she would show him what that meant!

When she advanced for the fourth time, she did so without straying one bit from a direct path towards him. At first, his shots hit either side of her, as he expected her to dodge, but after a third shot had missed her without even an attempt at dodging, he reconsidered and fired directly at her.

By then however, she was close enough to let loose torrents of flame both above and to the sides of him. Having backed himself into a corner to avoid her getting behind him, this meant that the rocks behind him were becoming very hot very fast.

Using this much aura over such a wide area at once was not something she had ever done before. The sensation brought a feeling of something inside of her quickly depleting. It wasn't a sensation that she had paid much attention before, but now that she was burning through her aura like this, it allowed her to briefly guess how much aura she had left without looking at her Scroll.

"I yield! I give up!", she heard him shout at the top of his lungs with more than a slight panic to his voice.

Nearly instantly, she stopped the torrents of flames and saw that the rocks behind him had nearly become red glowing. Immediately upon seeing her stop her assault, he dropped his shield with a loud thunk and proceeded to run from his previous spot while hastily removing his helmet and other metallic armour pieces.

When she looked at her Scroll, she saw that her aura had only just barely stayed above the 15% threshold. While she knew that she had been low, she hadn't realized that it was that low. Still the sensation might prove useful if she could hone it further. The thought of that reminded her that Yonsa had let it slip that he did not use a Scroll to gauge his aura levels early in the first semester. She wondered whether he knew how to train herself to do the same, and what had allowed him to practise it.

Her train of thought was interrupted by the commentator loudly declaring, "and with Mr. Argentum's surrender, Team MRRN has lost its final member. I don't know about you, but I truly enjoyed this clash between Huntsmen and Huntresses. I have no doubt that Team LPYS will continue to provide a good show in the next round."

Huh. She hadn't even noticed that the twins had been taken out. Oh well, as much as her pride hurt to say it, it might have been for the best that she didn't have to face those two girls at the moment.

Beside her, Magnesia had just finished shedding his armour and was looking at her with a somewhat cheeky looking grin.

"I wouldn't want to be the guy that pisses you off for real", he commented with a look back at where he had stood, "but I have to give it to you. I don't think anyone has ever made me outright surrender before. That was an impressive display."

"You fought quite well as well", she replied politely with a friendly smile, having remembered that this was supposed to be a friendly match and that hundreds of thousands might be looking at her at the moment, including her parents.

"Maybe, but after Russet and Rust got taken out, I knew that my team was done for. Still, I had hoped that I might be able to take you out in that last attack you know, so it wouldn't be a complete wipe, but it seems that you had more to give than me", he explained with a shrug, "speaking off them, I want to hear how they got taken out. I can count on my hand the number of people that have been able to pin them down when they really get in sync. Shall we join them?"

Pandora nodded, and together, they made their way away from the public arena and down into the locker rooms, where the others had gathered. When they arrived, Napa had his shirt off and was inspecting a large bruise right at the centre of his chest. Smaller bruises were likewise dotted all across his torso and arms.

"That thing packs a mean punch", he commented with a winch as one of the twins prodded at his bruises.

"It's designed to", Yonsa replied without a hint of remorse in his voice.

"Will you be alright?", Magnesia asked with concern.

"Yeah, I just won't be able to sleep on my front anymore. It was one thing if it was just the big one, but these bruises all across my body are annoying as hell", Napa replied with a dismissive wave of his hand, before he directed his attention squarely at his team captain, "how about you? I only got to see the last bit, but it looked like you should have been boiled alive in there."

"Nothing some salves won't fix", Magnesia shrugged with equal dismissiveness.

 _Did I really go that far?_ , Pandora wondered shocked. From personal experience, she knew that it didn't take much to go from slightly singed to horribly burned. Maybe she shouldn't be relying so heavily on her Semblance.

It was something that she had noticed since coming to Beacon. Back home, she had relied a lot more on martial arts with a little Semblance mixed in to give an extra punch, but dealing with large Grimm had forced her to adopt a more combative approach with a lot more heavy firepower mixed in.

"So, how were the two of you beat?", Magnesia asked and interrupted her train of thought, "I didn't think just anyone could pin the two of you in place when you really go into sync. The guys back in Vacuo had months to figure out a way, so what trick did they get you with?"

"Well, we _were_ only two people against three", one of the twins pointed out with a bit of accusation in her voice, "and these three aren't exactly slouches either."

"They fell", Seishin explained in a deadpan, "first one, and then the other almost immediately after. It allowed me to grab hold of Rust before she could get up and keep her pinned while Yonsa and Lafiel took care of Russet."

"The guy has a death grip", Rust commented with a small rub at her arms.

"You…fell?", Magnesia said unbelieving, "how?"

"The way you always fall!", Russet responded annoyed, "my mind and my foot didn't agree on where they were, and with the sensation bleeding through, Rust did as well."

It was slight, but Pandora picked up on Lafiel's eyes searching towards Yonsa just as Russet explained the art of falling. Yonsa, for his part, stood perfectly neutral and without looking the slightest bit concerned as he diligently cleaned the innards of his sniper.

It spoke of the fall not merely being an accident, and of Lafiel knowing something that Pandora didn't. The thought of that irked her somewhat, but what was more important was how Yonsa had influenced the situation without being noticed.

She had already suspected his Semblance of allowing him to increase his strength somehow, so it was only a small leap to go from there and then to allowing him to adjust others' strength instead. As a martial artist, she knew exactly how each and every one of her muscles reacted when she wanted it to do something, so if it suddenly reacted in a different way, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility to make someone stumble.

If that truly was his Semblance, then she could understand why he would try to keep it hidden. A small stumble here, an unexpected loss of strength there and no one would ever be the wiser as long as he kept it subtle and far between. Not enough to consistently win all matches, but enough to pitch the battles that mattered.

That train of thought led her back to Lafiel seemingly knowing about it. Had she found it by accident or been told by Yonsa? Based on Yonsa studiously not looking in Lafiel's direction, Pandora could guess that he knew that she knew. When combined with how jealously he had guarded his Semblance in the past and how their relationship hadn't appeared strained in a long time, he must either have told her or at least come to terms with her knowing.

The thought of that put her mind to ease. If Lafiel knew, and Yonsa and accepted that she knew, then Pandora could trust that if the situation ever really demanded it, Lafiel would be able to make the right call.

Still, it irked her not knowing and not knowing how to counter it, but that was a problem for another time. For now, they had to celebrate their victory.


	19. Strength and victory

**Strength and victory**

 **Pandora  
** When Pandora had thought of celebrating their victory, she had imagined going out to a nice restaurant in Atlas city. It wasn't supposed to be too late or heavy of a meal however, as her parents were here and likely wanted to eat dinner with her as well.

As it had turned out, the rest of her team had had other plans. The nice restaurant in town had been replaced by a cheap café/bar on campus, partly at the insistence of Yonsa, and she had already had to call her parents and promise them that she would meet them for breakfast tomorrow instead.

Even so, Pandora couldn't deny that the evening had been quite enjoyable so far. They had joked a bit, discussed the finer details of their recent fight and then moved on to talking about nothing of importance. That was why she chose now, when the mood was light and happy, to bring up a subject that had been at the back of her mind for the entire evening.

"So…who shall we send on to fight in the second round?", she asked them as lightly as she could while idly swirling the red wine in her glass.

Almost instantly, the chatter died down as they turned to look in her direction. She had known that to bring it up now might ruin the rest of the evening, but it was a topic that had to be cleared up soon, and she thought that they might be more agreeable while happy and content.

"You, obviously", Lafiel said seriously and without accusation in her voice, "you are our strongest fighter."

"I would like that", Pandora said with a small sigh of relief when no one protested her nomination, "and if possible, I would like for you to be the second nomination. You are the second-strongest fighter on our team, which would give us the best chance at victory."

"I suppose that is true", Lafiel murmured before turning to the boys, "how about you guys? Any objections to not being chosen?"

"I don't mind", Yonsa said with an air of indifference. Pandora hadn't expected otherwise. He had never been shy of his disinterest in the tournament, so it would have been unlikely for him to try and actively seek out the fame and recognition that advancing in it could bring.

Seishin was another matter. While he hadn't seemed to look forward to it as much as she had, he hadn't shown disinterest in it either. As a burgeoning Huntsman, it wasn't unlikely that he would have liked to see how far he could get in the most famous tournament for Huntsmen.

"I'm out as well", Seishin said to her relief, "that last fight really hammered home that I'm better suited to fighting Grimm than Huntsmen."

"Then it's good that you are training to become a Huntsman", Lafiel joked, earning her a "cheers to that" from Seishin.

"It's settled then", Pandora said with finality, "Lafiel, as team captain, could you go register it tomorrow morning?"

"Sure", Lafiel agreed with her glass of cider already halfway to her lips.

Fortunately, the mood didn't sour after that. Sometimes, it was good that everyone wasn't as competitive as she was. Then again, if they were a bit more competitive, then they might manage to one day challenge her properly.

Just as Pandora emptied her glass of wine and thought of calling it a night, Stirling's team joined them to drink away the loss that they had suffered. Not wanting to seem impolite, she had ordered another, which quickly turned into two when more teams started joining what was quickly becoming an open party.

Some joined to celebrate their victories, others to drown their sorrows, but they all kept coming. While she wouldn't call herself drunk, she would admit to not being entirely sober either. Perhaps that was why, when one of the other teams, a Beacon one at that, had cried about only having lost due to their bad luck in drawing opponents, she finally snapped.

If they wanted to reach the top, then it didn't matter what team they drew. And if they weren't aiming for the top, then why cry about it like a bunch of sympathy hungry losers feeling sorry for themselves.

Or so she had been told the next day that she had yelled at them. Pandora didn't quite remember being that harsh, but she did remember making a bet with their team captain in the heat of the moment. Not one that concerned her overly much though. All she had to do to win it was win their next fight, which they were sure to do given that they had shed the weakest members of their team.

And so, it came to be that she found herself eating breakfast with her parents at a nice café in town with an annoying feeling of nausea preventing her from more than nibbling at her croissant. The coffee was good though.

"I hope you didn't make a fool of yourself last night", her mother said accusingly.

"It was nothing. I just wanted to celebrate our victory and plan the strategy for today", Pandora lied partially, "nothing for you to worry about."

"So you say…", her mother said unconvinced.

"Yes, so I say", Pandora said firmly, "and since your spy wasn't there, you will just have to trust my word for it, though that apparently isn't enough."

Her outburst made her father choke on his coffee, before he collected himself, "we haven't hired someone to spy on you."

"The janitor", Pandora pointed out with an arched brow, "the janitor that had no business coming with us to Atlas, but came anyway, and who has been following me ever since I got here."

"He isn't here to spy on you. He is here to _guard_ you", her father said with enough conviction that Pandora actually thought he meant it, "I wouldn't have my little girl wandering a foreign land with no one to look out for her."

" _I_ can look out for myself", Pandora corrected him, "if _I_ cannot handle something, then he certainly cannot. And even _if_ I needed help, then I have my teammates to help me."

"Grimm and training matches are not all that can befall you", her mother chimed in, "sometimes, you need a more…firm touch with some people. Not to mention that some members of your team have…questionable natures."

Pandora wasn't sure how to interpret the last bit. She could be referring to one, two or all three of her teammates. Nevertheless, her response would be the same.

"We already had this discussion once before. You are not to interfere with my school life", Pandora countered with annoyance evident in her voice, "my _questionable_ teammates have already saved my life once. I owe them some privacy from your spying eyes."

"We are just trying to protect you the best that we can", her father said diplomatically, "but if you wish, we could agree to leave your teammates be in exchange for your acceptance of Navajo remaining in Vale. He wouldn't interfere with your life unless you needed help of a more…political kind."

Pandora wasn't ignorant enough to believe that she could just refuse having him being there altogether. Not when they had gone to such lengths to keep him there. Even if she did get him removed, they could just send another. At least this way, she knew who it was. Still she was her father's daughter.

"I'll agree to your proposal _if_ you let me oversee the reports that he is sending back and remove any private matters that wouldn't concern the two of you", Pandora counter-offered, "but be warned that if I find a discrepancy between my approved version and yours, then there _will_ be consequences."

"I can agree to that stipulation, as long as I don't find out later from someone else that you did something to tarnish our reputation and was too afraid of the consequences to tell us about it, "her father accepted with a caveat that Pandora had already foreseen. It didn't matter though, as Pandora knew how to behave. She wasn't born in a barn after all.

With the matter settled, the rest of their breakfast went along pleasantly. Her mother asked for her thoughts on Tyrian, but wasn't surprised when she didn't express an interest in her setting up a second date.

Before long, it was time to head off to the arena for her second match. Lafiel had texted her to inform her that their next opponents would be Team WYND, with Winter Schnee and Daintree Evergreen being nominated to fight them.

Her smile upon reading that nearly had nearly made her father choke on his coffee.

If there could have only been a single opponent that she could have faced in this tournament, it would have been Winter Schnee. Though acquaintances through their fathers, the two had never spoken much, but Pandora knew that the heiress would be a formidable opponent. It had been too long since she had had someone to truly challenge her.

When she got to the locker rooms in the arena, Lafiel was already dressed for battle in her black and grey one-piece jumpsuit. She had yet to put on her claws, but that was reserved for just before the match due to how they limited her hand usage.

"How did your breakfast go?", Lafiel asked her curiously.

"It went well", Pandora replied, "I couldn't get them to lose the guard completely, but I did manage to get in a few stipulations of my own. Including guaranteeing your privacy."

"Thanks, but what about your own?", Lafiel said concerned.

"I got some in there as well. I get to review the reports before they are sent and remove unnecessary information", Pandora brushed the matter off, "and in case we ever have need of it, I will have a direct line to my parents' influence at hand."

"As long as you are happy with it", Lafiel said doubtingly, "if you turn out not to be however…"

"I know. And thank you for the offer", Pandora thanked her friend, but knew that she was not likely to ever cash in on that offer. It wouldn't be fair to drag them into something that they couldn't change no matter how hard they tried.

Pushing the subject out of her mind, she quickly prepared for battle, discussed their plan of attack with Lafiel and headed up to the stadium. Winter Schnee already stood ready with her teammate beside her. Pandora suppressed a sigh at not being there first.

She was clad in a white, grey and blue attire that Pandora thought belonged more in a boardroom than on the battlefield. It suddenly made her immensely grateful for the black and gold edged armour that her father had insisted she wore.

As if to make up for her teammate's lack of armour, Daintree stood clad in full shining plate armour from head to toe, and no weapon in sight. There were small spikes sticking out from her armour in various places, but nothing that could be categorized as dealing any proper damage.

It made Lafiel wonder what her fighting strategy even was, but she quickly put it out of her mind. Winter Schnee was all she should concentrate on beating right now. She could always circle back afterwards.

The glyphs would be a threat to be sure. Their versatility made predicting their intended effect that much harder. It really wasn't fair that the Schnee family got to both inherit their Semblance and have one of the most flexible ones at the same time.

Then again, maybe the reason it was so flexible was exactly because they had had generations to figure out how to use it. If so, then that meant that she might be able to train her own Semblance to do something that she could not have conceived of before.

As she mused this, the field settings were finalized; Winter Wonderland and towering cliffs. Fitting for their match.

Pandora zoned out the announcer introducing their teams in favour of focusing entirely on Winter Schnee. Because of this, it only took her a little by surprise when a blast from behind Daintree propelled the armoured girl forward and unto her own teammate, effectively forcing Lafiel to retreat further back.

As her teammates was pushed back, Pandora rushed forward, intending to close the gap as quickly as possible. To her annoyance, Winter Schnee chose to retreat further back into the icy landscape, but not before spawning a white Beowolf right in front of Pandora.

The sudden appearance of an opponent forced Pandora to duck beneath its strike and then slide beneath its legs. Once behind it, she vaulted up on its back and finished it off with a single Semblance enhanced punch to the back of its head.

Just as it started disintegrating, Pandora felt more than saw a sword coming right for her. Using the disintegrating Beowolf, she pushed herself up and away in a backwards summersault just in time to see her opponent take the head clean off of the Beowolf.

During her descent, and without time to pause, Pandora had to use a wide area fire attack to ward off several small incoming Nevermores.

 _I need to stop her summoning_ , Pandora thought as two more Beowolves came into existence.

Rushing straight at her opponent, she dodged and weaved her way past the two Beowolves to get to Winter Schnee. This seemed to take her opponent by surprise, as the other Huntress only just managed to deflect her initial blows before using another glyph to propel herself back.

Pandora immediately continued the chase, never giving any room for any other summons to catch up to them or interfere with their fight. Eventually, Winter Schnee stopped summoning altogether and started using her other glyphs to fight Pandora properly.

The fight was exhilarating to a degree that Pandora hadn't experienced in _years_. Whenever she would try and outflank her opponent, she would find herself nearly outflanked in the very next second, and whenever her opponent would try tricking her with the sudden appearance of a glyph on the ground, she would dance around the trap and force her opponent to find a way to safely cross it without exposing herself.

Neither had any gun adjustments to take advantage of the space, and Pandora's fireballs were too slow to do anything but momentarily distract her opponent. As it was, this was turning into a battle of attrition. Whoever ran out of Aura for their Semblance first would lose the match.

While she couldn't spare the time to look away at the large monitor to gauge her opponent's Aura levels, Pandora was still confident that she would win a battle of attrition. Her opponent had to have used quite a lot of Aura to perform the initial summoning, and when taking Pandora's own huge reserves into account, there should be no contest of the eventual victor.

Even with this in mind, Pandora would have liked to beat Winter Schnee by outduelling her rather than outlasting her. Not to the extent that she would throw away her sure victory for a reckless chance, but enough to always be looking for any good openings that she could use.

On and on, the fight went. Once, Pandora had nearly made her opponent slip by slightly melting the ice beneath her feet with a feinted fireblast, but her opponent's second smaller sword had halted her from pouncing on her unless she had wanted to be skewered.

Just as Pandora was about to resign herself to having this battle be decided by attrition, Winter Schnee jumped back on top of an icy spike protruding from the ground. The icy pillar wasn't large enough to stand on, so she had to grab its top and hold her up with that and a small indent at her feet.

Jumping after her was out of the question, as she would be vulnerable in the air, and even more so if she tried to grab at the same place as her opponent. But…if she could force her opponent to fall, then she would have the advantage.

The pillar didn't look that solid further up, so breaking it should be possible, and once broken, Winter Schnee would have to rely on her glyphs to control her descent, but glyphs could be disrupted…

Making up her mind that this was to be where Winter Schnee was defeated, Pandora launched the first fireball at the ice. Strangely, the blast seemed louder than she would have expected.

Sudden and crushing pain penetrated her right side and sent her sprawling across the ice as another blast in her peripheral vision sent a shining humanoid figure after her in time to land a knee straight into her stomach.

Grunting in pain, Pandora couldn't put up even a meagre defence as her new opponent landed on top of her, pinning her to the ground, and with another blast, sent an armoured fist straight into her chest. Drained as she was from her previous fight, the quick flurry of attacks shattered her Aura in an instant.

"And with Ms. Azura's defeat, team WYND takes the match and proceeds to the next round!", the commentator announced.

Pandora was still trying to figure out just what had happened when a steel gauntlet was offered to help her up. Wincing as she bent up to take it, Pandora recognized Daintree Evergreen as her assailant, which meant that Lafiel had to have lost her fight, but when?

 _I was too focused on the fight in front of me to detect the changing circumstances_ , she realized just as Lafiel made her way over to her.

"Sorry Pandora, I thought I could hold her off for longer, but then swarm of white Beowolves surrounded me", her teammate said apologetically.

 _Oh…_ , Pandora suddenly realized her own mistakes, "it's alright, I should have taken care of them on my end before they even got to you."

She had been too tunnel-visioned to even notice the summons leaving the area without engaging her. Her opponents had laid a plan that combined their strengths to take out their opponents individually, and she…she had not given her teammate a single thought aside from circling around to help her _eventually_. Only this time, her teammates hadn't been able to pick up her slag, as they had when Magnesia had used the same strategy on her.

And now, she had paid the price of her conceit. Defeated in the first and likely last battle she would ever have with Winter Schnee. The thought nearly made her cry.


	20. At the pool, you go fish

This was just a fun little story that I thought up while travelling. I'm currently trying to get a few more little stories in before I move on to my next major planned arc, the Mistral Tournament(which also focuses a little heavily on Pandora, so I'm trying to give the others some breathing room).

Enjoy!

* * *

 **At the pool, you go fish**

 **Seishin  
** "You're it!", Cyan yelled excitedly as Seishin felt a small hand collide with his shoulder.

Biting down his instinct to wince at the slap that would surely leave a red mark, Seishin counted to three to give his youngest sibling time to get away. Two of the other three, the ones not too old to still _play games_ , scurried away from him as well, splashing water at everyone in their wake.

Having counted to three, Seishin waded through the water with some difficulty. The water may have only reached him to his stomach, where it covered Lafiel to her chest, but it slowed his movements all the same. And unlike her, _he_ could not just swim away. It wouldn't have been fair for the smaller ones.

With his self-imposed handicap, he had to trap them to catch them. Only, his siblings were moving like otters whenever he tried to corner one of them; laughing and scurrying away beneath the surface of the water.

Lafiel, too knowledgeable to get herself caught, swam circles around him. A friend of hers from Menagerie had been part fish, and she had had to swim a lot to keep up with her. Still, at least he wasn't trying to catch Pandora.

A quick glance showed her still doing laps in the other side of the pool, crawl this time. Her blue and black form shot through the water, overtaking one of the other swimmers in her lane for the nth time. Pandora had said that it was a hobby of hers back in Mistral, and Lafiel had whispered that she had been practising in the Beacon pool every night since they had arranged this trip.

His short moment of distraction was enough to allow Cole to swim right past him and slap him on the thigh too. The nerve!

Quick as a bear, Seishin jumped in his direction and reached out to grab his foot underwater, dragging him up from the water by the legs. Instead of looking the slightest bit remorseful, Cole laughed and admitted to being it now, prompting Seishin to drop him back into the water head first.

Before Cole had time to retaliate, Seishin had taken two large strokes and was a safe enough distance away that Cole decided he would rather chase one of the others.

That target turned out to be Lafiel, who was slowing her swim enough for him to seemingly catch up. However, just as he was about to reach her, she suddenly stopped dead in the water and turned to face him with a friendly, if daring, smile, and her arms tucked behind her back.

With his target suddenly stopped, Cole was about to reach out and touch her, but then suddenly retracted his hand. Seishin caught him looking up and down and side to side on Lafiel's grey and black one-piece swimsuit, a blush on his cheeks growing larger by the moment, as he tried to find a safe place to touch her.

Cyan wouldn't have been bothered, being still too young to consider such things, but he supposed Cole was reaching that age now. It felt strange to Seishin. When he had left for Beacon, the eldest of his brothers had only just turned nine, and now, three years later, he was suddenly beginning to find other interests. It had all happened too fast in Seishin's opinion.

Laughing at his predicament, Lafiel passed Cole in the water, tapping his head on the way, while saying "I'm it", with a certain twinkle in her eye. This left the poor boy even more blushing, as he submerged himself all the way down to his nose.

After a few more rounds, the bell rung, signalling that everyone must get out of the water for the next half an hour. After Pandora joined them, she and Seishin went to buy ice cream while Lafiel herded his siblings out of the water.

The line at the shop was so long that Seishin got dry before they even got to order anything. It was at times like these that he suspected that the swimming pool didn't use the break to thoroughly clean the water, but rather to spike their shop sales.

When they finally got to the front, the shop assistant turned out to be a sweet-looking girl that smiled sweetly up at him, though with an almost hidden disappointed look at Pandora. She was short, even shorter than Pandora, but she had a cute face, a red ponytail and she looked _very_ good in that company-issued shirt.

Giving his best smile back in return, he ordered enough ice cream for all of them and made sure to point out that they were getting it for their friends. A small wink when Pandora wasn't looking, and her casually mentioning that the shop closed in four hours, sealed the deal.

As soon as they were out of sight from the shop, Pandora punched him in the side. Not hard enough to leave a mark or make him drop the ice cream, but enough to get her point across.

"I thought you didn't notice", he said with a grin.

"I would have been blind not to", Pandora snorted, "besides, you are supposed to look after your siblings for the rest of the day, or am I mistaken?"

"I suppose so…", Seishin said somewhat sullenly. He had begun looking forward to meeting her again.

"…Fine, I'll try to convince the others, but you owe me for this", Pandora said with a sigh, before mumbling under her breath, "just couldn't keep it to himself for _one_ day."

Seishin found the comment unfair. It wasn't like he was hitting on every girl that crossed his path, and he practically never had the chance to at Beacon either. He chose not to protest however, as that might sour Pandora against helping him.

Nearing the lounging chairs by the pool, Seishin saw Cyan sitting in Lafiel's lap at the foot end of Yonsa's chair, while Cole tried to claim as much of the second lounging chair as he could get Primrose to give up. His sister didn't put down her Scroll until the ice cream was within reach.

Despite being 16 already, or maybe because of it, she had become more cross. Things that once would have held her interest for an entire day were now sniffed at. She was even still clad in shorts and a t-shirt, not even intending to go into the pool at all.

Maybe she had been encouraged by Yonsa not going in either? He was also wearing shorts and a t-shirt, but his were at least swimming trunks. Yonsa's excuse for not going in had been that he was "just getting to the good part" of the book that had been carefully wrapped in neutral grey wrappings and was now lying below the lounging chair.

The book was one of Lafiel's, they almost always were, and this one was just as unidentifiable as the last that he had read. Seishin wasn't quite sure what kind of books that Lafiel had gotten him hooked on, but it surely wasn't the fantasy adventure series that Seishin had tried getting him into.

According to Yonsa, he simply couldn't abide by the main protagonists' unwillingness to solve world ending problems when the solution was _right there_. And according to Seishin, Yonsa simply didn't understand the concept of a morally bounded hero.

Yonsa had enjoyed some of the crime novels that Pandora had lent him, as had Seishin, but it was Lafiel's mysterious series that he kept coming back to.

Handing out the ice cream, Seishin plopped down on a lounging chair next to Yonsa's, with Pandora following close behind. Now, how to get them to agree to taking care of his siblings for the rest of the day?

"Want to join us in playing tag later?", Cyan asked Yonsa between bites.

"I'm afraid that I will have to decline", Yonsa said, "I was just getting to a really good part in my book."

"Oh…", Cyan said crestfallen.

"What's it about?", Cole asked from the other chair.

"Oh, it's uh…it's about a…coming of age story", Yonsa said, though hardly convincingly.

"You can't join us? That's a shame, but I guess it can't be helped if you are at the really good part where Mr. Darc-", Lafiel said with a pointed look towards Yonsa, before he stopped her midsentence by exclaiming that she had to taste his ice cream and subsequently shoved his spoon into her mouth.

The sudden action produced a gasp from Primrose and Cole's eyes went wide as they stared from Lafiel to Yonsa and then to Lafiel again. For her part, Lafiel started smirking once the initial shock had disappeared, and then, to Seishin's horror, she started slowly and almost _seductively_ eating the spoon of ice cream.

Date or no, there was no way he was leaving his siblings with these two while they were like this!

Once finished with the ice cream, she gently took hold of Yonsa's hand and pulled the spoon from her mouth with a small plop, still smirking the entire time. For his part, Yonsa tried to pretend that nothing was amiss and went back to eating his own ice cream.

Primrose and Cole both intensely followed the spoon as it dug out another scoop and slowly but surely entered Yonsa's mouth. When he closed his mouth, Primrose actually gave a little squeal and held her hands up to cover her mouth and burning cheeks.

"I assume that you are joining us then?", Lafiel said in a too innocent voice.

"Yes, I'll…I'll just have to leave the book in my bags first", Yonsa said with a nervous look around at their audience.

As he got up, Seishin noticed that he discreetly signalled Lafiel to come with him. Making a comment that she had to use the ladies' room, Lafiel got up a moment later and caught up with Yonsa. They were not entirely out of Seishin's hearing when Yonsa leaned over and whispered into Lafiel's ear, "no deep waters. I can't swim."

Well, that explained a lot.

Strangely, the thought that Yonsa shouldn't be able to swim had never even crossed Seishin's mind. Then again, when would he have learned? There wasn't a lot of lakes in Anima that weren't infested with Grimm, and you would have to live in a city to visit most swimming pools. For him, swimming might have only been associated with extra dangers.

Seishin was just about to tell Yonsa that they would be leaving soon anyway, so he didn't have to, when he saw Lafiel lean over and whisper into his ear, "don't worry, I'll _teach_ you."

"Your cheeks are all red!", Cyan exclaimed excitedly.

That settled it, there was no way that he was leaving his siblings with these two!


	21. For want of a wish 1 of 2

So, I couldn't come up with anything else like I wanted, so I just marched on with my eventual planned Mistral Arc.  
This is a 2-parter only because I thought it seemed more managable to read that way. Enjoy!

* * *

 **For want of a wish**

 **Pandora  
** Hills were rolling by beyond the window. Forested hills, grassy hills, hills that had structures on top, hills with ruins. It didn't matter which, they all kept rolling by in front of Pandora's bored eyes. Travelling by train was indeed quite different than flying.

It was bumpier, for one, and it wasn't as fast as if they had taken a Bullhead to their destination. Not that the latter had been an option. Apparently, Haven academy wasn't as generous with transportation as Beacon was.

So that meant that they had had to take the train, and even when they finally got to their stop, they still had a good bit to go on foot. Still, taking a train was an experience, if nothing else, and not one Pandora would prefer having to have again. Once was enough.

It wasn't like her teammates were improving the experience. Seishin was sound asleep in the chair opposite of hers, as he had been practically since they got on the train, and Lafiel and Yonsa were busy playing Cat's Cradle beside her.

They were actually pretty good at it, having managed to not stop their current game for the almost four hours. As she thought so, her peripheral vision caught Yonsa passing the string to Lafiel.

Lafiel received it and with a few simple motions, she had managed to create another figure that had Yonsa nodding, before he started truly studying the strings between her hands. He would study them for a bit, then make a few adjustments, before Lafiel passed it back to him. Not yet though, not for another small while, but that was how they had continued on ever since they got on the train.

Bored as she was, Pandora couldn't keep her mind from wandering.

Yonsa seemed calmer than he had been when they had chosen their mission. Not that he had been visibly frustrated then, but there had been a tense feel to him, as if he would have preferred almost any other mission than this one. Pandora didn't know why. It was just a standard Search and Destroy mission in one of Mistrals outer villages.

He hadn't protested taking it though, which had surprised Pandora at the time. She had expected opposition, especially since Lafiel had approached her the night before to ask a favour. If it had come to it, Pandora would have supported Lafiel's choice, if for no other reason than that she had promised to.

It did make the mission different than normal though, and Pandora didn't know how. It irked her not knowing, but she could make a few guesses. None were for the better, not with what she had pieced together of his life before Beacon. Still, Lafiel wouldn't have exposed their team to additional harm without even telling them why, let alone get their consent.

She would have to put her trust in Lafiel's judgement, as she had so many times before. That wasn't a new conclusion though. It was one that she had made an hour ago, and the hour before that, and the one before that as well.

No less bored, she turned back to studying the hills rolling by.

A grunt from Seishin soon became the start of him snoring like a bear. So loudly did he snore that other passengers turned in their seats to find the source of the noise.

Already annoyed by the snore itself, the embarrassment of other people hearing it too made Pandora reach over and squeeze his nose shut. Seishin took a few disturbed breaths before waking with a start to find Pandora leaning over him.

"You were snoring. Loudly", she explained as the other passengers started returning to their seats.

"Sorry", he said and almost made it sound believable, if not for him still trying to blink sleep out of his eyes, "how far are we?"

"An hour and 25 minutes out, if we are still on schedule", Pandora answered without having to think about it.

"Damn", he muttered under his breath, "care for playing cards?"

"Yes, please", Pandora answered a little overeager.

"Count us in as well", Lafiel said, leaving Yonsa with the strings still strung out between his hands.

During the next hour and a half, Pandora didn't watch the hills rolling by even once. Perhaps there were some advantages to taking the train after all.

The train station that they had stopped at wasn't as crowded as she had feared. Here and there, people were ready to meet the passengers getting off of the train. Some were relatives, some were simply there to pick people up and others were ready to try selling their wares to those from the city.

No one were there to pick them up. Not that they had expected anyone to be there. It wasn't even this town that they were heading to after all. A few started approaching them to try selling stuff, but they quickly changed their mind for a reason that Pandora didn't know. They certainly eyed her gear hungrily enough to know that she must have money to spend.

"Let's stop by the local inn before we leave", Yonsa muttered to Lafiel with some of the tenseness from that morning returning as he pulled up his hood, "it would be good to get the lay of the land _before_ encountering it for once."

Not one to argue the obvious, Pandora simply nodded when Lafiel silently asked their opinions on the matter. When questioned, Seishin shrugged, hefted up his backpack with most of their supplies and followed them out the station.

The town was…different from those that she had come to be used to in Vale. The buildings were closer in style to those that her family had often went skiing in. As they kept walking, she noticed that the wall surrounding the city was both smaller and less patrolled than those in Vale. Design-wise it also seemed as if the town had been built inside the wall, instead of the wall being built outside the town.

It made her realize that she had more experience with the villages and towns in Vale than she had with those in her own kingdom. Perhaps a tour of Mistral might be a good idea after she graduated.

As she mused this, Yonsa led them to a large three-storied building that was no doubt the inn that he had spoken of before. While large, it didn't seem as well kept as some of those in Vale. Here and there, the stonework had begun to show under the white plaster, and a few of the windows on the upper floors had been replaced with wooden boards.

Despite all this, the door and sign hanging just above it seemed almost new. Not even a dent was to be found in the door, and the sign, a sleeping fox with two tankards behind it, shone as if the paint was still wet.

Inside, several round tables were spread in a large open area with a bar disk occupying the space between the stairs and the doors to the kitchen. Most of the tables were empty at this time of day, but off in the corner, a small group had pulled a few tables together and huddled there.

At their entry, the group in the corner quickly eyed them warily, before returning to whatever they had been doing before. In contrast, the innkeeper, a fat man with greying hair and a big moustache, eyed them first with suspicion and then immediately after with a warm smile to make anyone feel at home.

"Can I get you anything?", he asked from across the room.

"Water for me, tea for Lafiel, apple cider for the lady and coffee for the big guy", Yonsa quickly listed their usual order in a voice low enough to only be heard by them and the innkeeper.

"Right away", the innkeeper nodded and hurried to take their orders to the kitchen.

They sat down at one of the tables near the wall. It was somewhat close to the group, but not close enough that it might feel like they were trying to listen in on them. Well, Seishin might have been able to, if everyone had stayed quiet.

Even so, Pandora noticed that some of those in the other group kept giving them sidelong looks, as if suspecting them of something, but when she returned her attention to their own table, she noticed that Yonsa was likewise giving the group the same suspicious glances that one hoped might not be noticed by the other party.

It wasn't helped by the fact that he still had not lowered his hood, which seemed just a tad bit suspicious in Pandora's mind. Still, she wouldn't try to interfere for now. This was his home field after all, and he likely knew what he was doing.

Soon, the innkeeper returned with their order and then began inquiring about their plans. When Yonsa didn't answer, Lafiel jumped in and explained that they were Huntsmen on their way to another village, but that they had wanted to stop by here first.

Pandora noted that she hadn't mentioned why they chosen to come to the inn. Had there been some memo that she hadn't received about them needing all this secrecy when out of Mistral? Or maybe Yonsa's paranoia had just finally rubbed off on Lafiel?

As they sipped their drinks, Yonsa kept eyeing the other group, while trying to hide the fact that he was doing so. Maybe he knew them?

It wasn't until they were halfway through their drinks that he finally gave a sigh with a small nod, before pushing back his hood. The action instantly drew the eyes of the other group, as well as most of the rest in the inn. It appeared that everyone had found it as suspicious as Pandora had.

"I would like to buy half a kg of dried beef to the one that can answer most of my questions", he declared in a loud voice, so unlike the almost whispering that he had done before.

Almost as one, the other patrons turned back to their own drinks, but the group in the corner kept eyeing him suspiciously. It didn't take long however, before a small boy of maybe 11 separated from the group and cautiously approached their table.

The little boy was dressed in worn out rags, and beneath those, he seemed little more than skin and bones. His mud-brown hair stuck together and had clearly been cut by someone that neither knew nor cared about how it would look later. His green eyes were as suspicious as any that Pandora had ever seen.

The mere sight of him was almost enough to break her heart, and on the opposite side of the table, Lafiel kept looking first to the boy, then to Yonsa and then back to the boy again.

"What's your name?", Yonsa asked the boy without seeming to notice any of this.

"Pelinal, but my friends call me Pel", the young boy answered levelly.

"Do you know who Hóng is? And where he is?", Yonsa asked with a bit more urgency in his voice.

"I – I don't, sir", Pel said almost crestfallen at not knowing.

"Who wants to know?", one of the others in the group broke in.

"Someone that very much would like to _not_ meet him again", Yonsa replied with the beginnings of a grin as he looked straight at the one that had spoken.

At hearing this, the maybe 17-ish black-haired man looked more closely at Yonsa's face and then at his spear with the red sash at the tip, before exclaiming, "wait, you are Yonsa, right? I heard about you. Is it true you left him facing an Ursa with nothing but a broken stick?"

"Hey, he started it by trying to get me killed with Beowolves so that he could steal my bag!", Yonsa exclaimed with a pointed finger directed at the other. Somehow, that brought a laughter from the black-haired man that Pandora couldn't find the reason for. And just like that, the dam seemed to break as the rest quickly gathered around their table.

 _Other couriers_ , Pandora realized, _but the oldest is only 17! Where are the adults?_

After the initial introduction of their team, and their subsequent admiration of him almost having finished the Huntsman training, Yonsa returned to the first question that he had asked, "seriously though, I need to know the status of a few people before I head out."

"Hóng joined up with some bandit tribe a few years ago. Haven't heard much of him since", the black-haired man called Burns said.

"How about Zelgadias, Mercury, Aqua?", Yonsa asked and kept asking more names as soon as he got the answers.

More often than not, it was not Burns, but another in the group that knew the answer, but eventually, most on his list of people had gotten a fate attached to them. Some had joined trading caravans as guards or small time merchants, others had settled down somewhere to farm, and a very select few had gone to Haven, but the most common answer simply was that they had missed a delivery.

Yonsa seemed to take each fate in stride, giving a few nods here and there, but mostly, he just seemed to absorb the information. It made Pandora realize that despite not being nearly as removed from her old world as Yonsa had been, she had fallen out of touch with more than a few people. Who knew what they were doing now?

After finishing catching up on old acquaintances, Yonsa started inquiring about the state of the area and the roads. Grimm had become more frequent over the years, as had the White Fang, which was sometimes talked of as a greater threat than the Grimm. At the mention of the White Fang, Lafiel and Seishin's animal traits were eyed briefly. However, whether due to Yonsa's acquaintanceship, their status as Huntsmen or some third reason, no one looked at them askance even afterwards. Well, no more than usual.

After what had felt like hours of being the third wheel, the discussion was broken when Pel announced that he had to get going if he wanted to make it before nightfall. It wasn't without looking mightily remorseful at not having been able to answer a single question though.

"The usual Kain route?", Yonsa inquired, to which the others nodded.

At Lafiel's questioning look, he elaborated, "it is just delivering mail between neighbouring villages. He can usually be there and back again within a day or so if he goes by the main road."

"Innkeeper, I would like to buy Pel half a kg of dried beef", Pandora heard herself say before she could think about it.

"But I didn't answer any questions", the little boy said nervously.

"But you did get us a foot in the door. That seems more than worth it to me", Pandora explained as she handed over the Lien. It wouldn't really have mattered what he had done though.

"I'd also like to settle my debt. I think it was Maple that got the most", Yonsa declared.

The innkeeper quickly came out with two packages wrapped in brown paper and handed one to Pel and the other to Maple. By then, they had also finished with their drinks and it was getting late enough that Yonsa estimated that they would have to push a little hard if they wanted to reach their destination before nightfall.

Their farewell with the other couriers was far more subdued than their introduction had been, and soon, Pandora found herself walking on of the main road leading out of town. Yonsa was leading their group, but for once, he kept close to them instead of moving further ahead.

"Does the…Kain route pay much?", Pandora heard herself ask a question that had been nagging at her mind ever since Pel had left.

"Practically nothing", Yonsa replied while scanning the forests at either side of the road, "most experienced couriers don't even bother with them, so the newbies get them to train on before they move on to more far-reaching jobs."

"When you say practically nothing..?", Pandora kept digging.

"Enough for a young child to live off of, if not well", Yonsa answered with a wave of his hand, "when he hits puberty though, then he better hope that he has moved up to some better contracts. If he survives that long, that is."

"Survives the Grimm?", Seishin asked curious.

"Them too, but most major roads are heavily bandit infested as well", Yonsa explained, before exclaiming, "ah, here it is!"

And that suddenly, he switched direction to move into the forest on their right side, passing a broken vine-covered granite statue of a lion on his way.

"Aren't we taking the road?", Seishin asked.

"I just told you that it is heavily bandit infested", Yonsa answered exasperated, "we'll use one of my old routes to get there instead. It isn't faster, but we won't risk running into bandits on it."

The underbrush of the forest hardly seemed like a path that anyone had trodden on in years. Furthermore, Pandora couldn't find any visible markers of where they were going, but Yonsa seemed to know the way and set the tempo to match.

"Are you sure that this is a real path?", Pandora inquired as they climbed over a fallen tree with a trunk as wide as she was high, "it doesn't exactly seem like it has been used in years."

"It probably hasn't", Yonsa replied, "I told you that it was mine, right? Oh, right! Couriers usually make their own personal routes that avoid the roads as much as possible."

"Then why did Pel take the roads?", Pandora wondered.

"Oh, he is way too inexperienced to start using these", Yonsa said matter-of-factly, "give him another year or two and he might start making his first ones. Another couple of years and he should have a good-sized network over most of Anima. That is, if he doesn't get lost in them first. A good chunk of the newbies miss their deliveries that way."

"Then why not help each other and show the new ones your routes?", Lafiel asked him confused.

"Remember the story I told you about the Grimm and the three couriers?", Yonsa said as a way of explanation, which Lafiel seemed to get after a short while, "besides, having too many people use them makes it more likely that bandits will start noticing where they are, and then we are back to the road problem."

"You could still help show them the ropes", Pandora suggested.

"We do, in the inns. We give them some tricks and such that makes it easier to learn, but it isn't like we have time to hold their hands throughout it. We have jobs too, you know", Yonsa said defensively, which made Pandora back off that line of questioning. Experience had shown that he was _very_ defensive about any questionable decisions taken during his time as a courier.

They didn't spend much time discussing after that. Yonsa kept their pace hard enough that there wasn't really a good opportunity to do so. He also kept sticking with them to show when to change directions. Even after years of training with him guiding them in Vale, she doubted that they would have been able to find their way with just his verbal instructions over the Scroll. Once, he turned nearly 70 degrees just by passing a wooden stump!

Their trip wasn't without incident though. More than once, he had had to backtrack for sometimes up to half an hour in order to find that the tree that he had used as a marker had been destroyed by either bears or Grimm with equally long claws, or that the boulder with a triangle shape etched into it had been overgrown by moss.

The more times it happened, the more he started grumbling about not maintaining ones markers properly. It might have been amusing that even he could get lost, if not for the fact that his memories of these markers were the only thing that gave them any idea of where they were and how they could get out of the forest.

Eventually though, shortly after the sky had turned from red to black, they got out of the forest. In front of them was a small village with lights in every window and people still milling about outside. It all seemed very idyllic, if not for their mission to search for and destroy the increased Grimm presence in the area.

A woman taking down clothes from a string noticed them and gave a yelp of surprise. Lafiel was about to step forward and explain their presence, but Yonsa's outstretched hand and small shake of his head stopped her in her path.

"They are just a bit on edge because we came after dark", Yonsa explained, "wait with going towards them until they feel less threatened, and just quickly explain who we are and why we are here. Keep the mic on though. If something seems wrong, I'll help guide you."

Soon, armed people carrying torches started gathering near the woman and started scouting out towards where their group stood near the forest's edge. Only after almost half a dozen had gathered did Yonsa signal Lafiel to move forward.

Pandora was about to follow, but stopped when she noticed Yonsa remaining rooted in his place. Seishin likewise remained standing while using his giant warhammer as a makeshift armrest.

Instead of plopping down on the ground, which seemed undignified, or trying to get a glimpse through the darkness of what was happening with Lafiel, Pandora chose to study Yonsa's expression instead. If something was wrong, his face might reveal it before any shout could.

Staring as she was, it was impossible to miss the subtle nods that he would give once in a while, or the small beginnings of a grin that was smothered as soon as it appeared. It struck her then that she had sometimes caught Lafiel grinning on missions even though nothing funny had been said.

It made her wonder if they often left the mics on without telling anyone. She could guess their reasons for doing so, Yonsa wouldn't feel as isolated when scouting in front of the group if he could hear them talking and Lafiel would be able to hear his running commentary as a secret second opinion that only she knew. It was sweet in a way that was all their own.

He didn't speak now though, not even once before Lafiel called for them to join her.

"Everyone, this is Mayor Brine. We will be staying at his inn while we are here", Lafiel explained while indicating one of the men carrying a torch, a large brown moustache and a pair of arms that would rival Seishin's, before she started introducing each of them, "Mayor Brine, this is Yonsa Chén Zhuáng De, Pandora Azura and Seishin Kuma."

"Pleased to make your acquaintance", Mayor Brine said in a rumbling voice as he eyed them up and down one by one. At Seishin, he gave a small unconscious nod of approval as he looked up at him.

"How about we continue this inside my inn? No use standing around out here in the dark like this", Mayor Brine suggested, to which they all agreed immediately.

On the way to the inn, the torch carrying militia started fragmenting so quickly that by the time they reached the inn, only one other remained, and he was the Mayor's son. While walking, Pandora had caught Yonsa reaching to pull his hood up, before dropping his hand to his side as if he only just became aware of the action.

After everyone had had a chance to see their two rooms and dump their bags, they met in the inn's ground floor to discuss the situation and their plan for solving it. It was something that they had picked up on over the years; villagers liked feeling like they were contributing to the eradication of their problem, even if nothing they said was unknown to the four of them.

This village didn't really have that difficult of a problem to solve. The Grimm concentration had merely increased enough that a good culling was necessary to bring it back down again. It was a pretty routine job for Huntsmen.

"I think it would be best to just start spiralling out from the village until we reach here", Lafiel explained mostly to Mayor Brine as she pointed to a river marked on the map that the mayor had brought, "we'll keep on this side of the river for now, and if it seems necessary, we will cross it and take that area last. The river should discourage most smaller Grimm from coming this way anyway."

"The river should be dried up enough around this time of year that it should be easily crossable, also for Grimm", Yonsa explained before the mayor had a chance to interject, which caused the mayor to look at him in surprise.

"I've been through this area before", Yonsa said as a way of explanation, to which the mayor nodded in understanding.

"Hmm, if so, then we should just continue the spiralling uninterrupted. I think two and a half days should be enough to get everything in a good size radius. If the wildlife move back in quickly enough, then the Grimm should not be a problem for at least another two or so years", Lafiel explained, "is that acceptable?"

"Sure, but will you be able to hold this pattern steady for so long, not to mention find the village again at the end of the day and find your way back at the start of a new day?", Mayor Brine asked concerned, "the CCT towers don't give enough signal out here to provide tracking on your Scrolls, and that is if they even have this area mapped."

"It's fine, we have done similar in the past", Lafiel waved his concern off with a small glance towards Yonsa, who gave an almost imperceptible nod.

The mayor didn't seem entirely convinced, though he chose to drop the subject in favour of their experience. After that, it was a quick meal before heading up to bed. Tomorrow would be an early morning after all.


	22. For want of a wish 2 of 2

When Pandora went down the stairs the next day, still yawning behind her hand, she noticed Lafiel sitting at a table with a half-eaten bowl of porridge in front of her and an empty one at the chair beside her. She hadn't heard the other girl leave their room, but had noticed her empty bed on her way out.

Outside, the sun had only barely begun to light up the sky, and no villagers seemed to be out and about yet. Still half asleep, Pandora went to join her friend and started reaching for the black cast-iron pot with porridge at the centre of the table.

"It's cold", she grumbled annoyed.

"Yonsa made it before he left this morning", Lafiel said, sounding almost as if she could have been talking to herself.

"He left already?", Pandora murmured as she reached under the pot and used her Semblance to start heating it up. It was a frivolous use of her Semblance, but as of this moment, she didn't care. She just wanted something hot and filling.

"He wanted to get reacquainted with the area before we headed out", Lafiel explained, "we'll meet up outside the city after we leave."

"Why outside?", Pandora mused.

"I'm not completely sure, but we should get Seishin up soon if we want him to have some breakfast before it gets cold again", Lafiel answered.

"It seems like you are finished eating, so you go get him up", Pandora pointed out and started filling her bowl.

When Lafiel came back down again, she was leading a mostly still asleep Seishin by the hand. Eventually, she managed to get him seated with a bowl in front of him and a spoon in his hand. He didn't seem much of use though.

Pandora eyed him mechanically eating his porridge with his eyes shut and wondered how he managed to not spill any, when Lafiel suddenly caught her attention with a small smirk.

"Hey Seishin, we are heading out in a few minutes", she said in a teasing voice.

"Mhmm", he mumbled.

"Also, Pandora is pregnant with your child", Lafiel continued in an almost laugh, which caused Pandora's cheeks to redden, her mind to wake completely and her to cast an accusing glare at her supposed friend.

"Mhmm", he mumbled again, before suddenly blinking heavily and looking confused from one to the other, "but we haven't…arhh. Very funny, I'm sure Yonsa thoroughly enjoys your company in the morning."

The last was said with enough sarcasm that you could practically taste it in the air.

"I don't kiss and tell, but he does, and you are awake now", Lafiel said in a chipper voice with only a hint of a blush.

"Why did you have to use me", Pandora grumbled under her breath, but knew the futility of arguing the point. Besides, Lafiel wouldn't have done so if there were others to hear it.

After they finished their breakfast, the trio was just about to head out when Mayor Brine came down from the stairs with one hand trying to cover a wide yawn.

"Heading out already? It's barely dawn yet", he mumbled under another yawn.

"We said two and a half day, and we intend to keep that deadline", Lafiel replied without a hint of tiredness to her voice, "besides, if we finish sooner, we get to relax here for a bit until our train leaves."

"And I thought my son was awfully fresh in the morning", the mayor grumbled and showed them to the door.

After leaving the mayor at his inn, Yonsa contacted Lafiel and told them to meet him just outside of town, where they had agreed to start their hunt the previous evening. Aside from some dirt on his hands, he looked as if he had just gotten out of bed after a night and day of sleep and rest. Life wasn't fair sometimes.

"The area hasn't changed that much from what I remember, but I still think it would be best to stay together rather than split up", he told them after they had joined around him. He then started drawing a crude map in the dirt with the end of his spear, "aside from some tall cliffs west of here, there isn't really any good landmarks to triangulate our position from, so we will have to follow the route I set out pretty strictly if we don't want to veer off too much."

"Any Grimm of notice?", Lafiel questioned.

"None that I saw traces of", Yonsa answered, "there might be some hibernating in a cave somewhere, but we will have to take that as it comes."

"So, the usual then", Pandora confirmed.

"Sounds so", Seishin agreed.

With that out of the way, the group started heading out. The first few rounds went by pretty quickly, but as the circle quickly started expanding, so did the time and effort needed to keep on track. By the sixth round, when they were about 100 m away from the village, Yonsa pulled two pieces of black charcoal from his cloak and gave one each to Lafiel and Seishin.

He then marked a tree with it and told the rest of them to head in a specific direction, with Lafiel staying behind at the 15 m mark to mark a second tree, while Seishin and Pandora continued until they hit 30 m.

Once there, he would judge how much they had veered off from his direction and direct them to move a little to one side or another before marking a tree. For this purpose, Seishin was given Lafiel's headset to wear and listen to instructions in.

Pandora didn't think that she had ever seen Lafiel as reluctant to hand over anything as she had that headset. When asked why she couldn't just be in the front group, Yonsa had said that he needed Seishin there because he was big and eye-catching, and he needed Lafiel at the centre point because Pandora's armour almost fell in with the foliage, while Lafiel's red tail with a splash of white at the end stood out pretty well at that distance.

And so the day wore on. Yonsa would give directions, then adjust and move to the marked tree, and the process would begin all over again. Occasionally, the monotony was disrupted by Grimm attacking, but it wasn't really an issue for any of them.

By the time they finally decided to call it quits for the day, Pandora's feet were sore and she was almost sure that she had blisters somewhere on them. She wasn't used to walking this much. Before they returned to the village, Yonsa and Seishin made some large marking that would help them find where they had left off.

Unlike the previous night, the sun was still up enough in the sky for the villagers to instantly recognize their group when they returned. It beat having to explain their presence all over again, though the villagers would probably know to expect them by now.

Just as they were about to exit the forest surrounding the village, Lafiel pulled Pandora aside and told her to go on ahead. She had something that she wanted to discuss with Yonsa, or so she said.

Pandora didn't mind and quickly started leading Seishin towards the village, while the two others stayed behind. If they wanted a bit of alone time, then she was more than happy to help. At least they weren't kicking them out of their room this time.

Putting the two of them out of her mind, Pandora's thoughts quickly centred on the hot tub of water that she would soon sink her feet into. It was a shame that there wasn't any good foot soap out here.

Her dreams of resting were momentarily distracted by the mayor inquiring why only the two of them had returned, which forced Pandora to have to find an explanation without openly telling him why. It would have been so much easier if the two of them just came out in the open with their relationship.

Even back at Beacon, they kept the exact status of their relationship nebulous, even though it was practically an open secret at this point. But no, they wanted to keep it as a plausible deniability, so Pandora and Seishin had to cover for them from time to time.

Yonsa and Lafiel didn't return until after night had fallen. By then, most of the village had gone asleep, and the only ones awake were those in the inn that were waiting for the two of them to return. One of them, the mayor, inquired how their preparations for the next day had gone with a knowing look in his eye.

This caused Lafiel to shoot a quick look at Pandora, who merely shrugged innocently in response. It wasn't her fault that the two of them had chosen a time and place that made it pretty hard to find a suitable excuse, and in her defence, the mayor seemed to be quite adept at picking up on such things.

Still, for some reason or another, Mayor Brine managed to keep up plausible deniability. After that, it was just a quick meal, progress report and then back to bed for the four of them.

The next day followed the first in much the same way. Yonsa met them in the woods outside the village first thing in the morning, they continued their spiralling during the day and then finally called it quits close to nightfall. Yonsa and Lafiel even stayed behind until after nightfall as well, which either cemented people's opinion that they were truly preparing for the next day, or cemented their opinions on the opposite.

The only real difference between the first and second day was that they had started crossing the river on the second day, which was indeed dried up enough to be easily crossable, as Yonsa had said.

On the third day, they finished their intended search range a bit before noon. This allowed them to set a sedate pace on the way back to the village. As they headed back, Pandora noticed that Yonsa would periodically stick his hand inside his cloak for a moment before taking it out again.

It was a distinctly odd thing for him to do, and what made it odder was that he looked almost nervous the entire way back. To make it even more odd, Lafiel walked beside him with a happy smile perpetually stuck on her face, even as she occasionally leaned over and whispered something into his ear.

The two of them were hiding something, Pandora was sure of that, but she didn't think it was malign by the way they acted. Pandora knew that they would tell her and Seishin in time, but she really wanted to know what it was sooner rather than later.

By the time they got back to the village and told them of their completed mission, everyone started gathering around them to thank them for their service. Even though it had been their job from the start, Pandora could never get over how they were always thanked so after completing it. It made her feel better inside than she could ever remember having felt before Beacon.

She could see why Seishin wanted to do this for the rest of his life.

After having a communal lunch with most of the village, it was decided that they would head back to the train station right away. Their tickets were actually for the next day, but Pandora hoped that they could get on the train today and get back to Haven as quickly as possible. What she wouldn't give for a proper bath right now, after all that trekking.

Just as they were about to head off, Yonsa separated from the group and went towards an elderly woman with shoulder length grey hair and enough wrinkles to count for two. Lafiel followed close behind.

The woman seemed as confused as Pandora was, even more so since she probably hadn't even seen Yonsa even once during their stay here. When he reached her, Yonsa cleared his throat twice, before fumblingly reaching inside his cloak and drawing out a golden armband, which he then promptly laid in her hands, as if simply holding it burned him.

Upon seeing the armband, tears welled up in the elderly woman's eyes and she looked up at Yonsa searchingly, as if trying to figure out who he was. A quick glance at the red sash covering his spearhead was all the warning Yonsa got before she grabbed him by the head and dragged him down into a sobbing hug.

While still hugging him, she kept stroking the back of his head in a motherly fashion. If not for Yonsa's awkward attempts at patting her back and his admission years ago of being an orphan with no family, Pandora would have thought that she was his long lost grandmother.

As she finally released Yonsa from her grip, Pandora saw Lafiel move up next to Yonsa, where she linked her hand with his. The move shocked Pandora more than anything that had come before it. The two of them had _never_ made public displays of affection before!

When the elderly woman noticed their joined hands, she beamed from one to the other more happily than even the sun. Seeing her and the two of them so happy almost made Pandora jealous of her friends.

Nothing that happened after that could really compare. From snippets caught between villagers equally curious about what was going on, and Yonsa's own heavily simplified explanation later, she was able to figure out that the woman had once saved his life, and the armband was a family heirloom of hers.

Pandora knew that there was more to it than that, but this had to be personal to an extent that she would likely never really know, let alone understand. She could accept not knowing.

When they got back to the inn that they had started out from four days ago, Lafiel and Yonsa had finally stopped holding hands. They hadn't let go even once during their trip through Yonsa's forest path, but upon seeing the town, they had reluctantly let go. Plausible deniability. It made Pandora sigh in frustration.

The inn had fewer people in it than when they had last been there. Burns and Maple were still sitting in the same corner, together with a few new faces that hadn't been there the last time. Most of the couriers from last were gone though.

After introducing them to the new faces, Yonsa immediately started talking shop, telling them of where and how far an area they had cleared of Grimm.

"Could I get you to not tell this to the caravan in town? They are heading in that direction, and have hired Maple and I for extra guards", Burns requested.

"Of course", Yonsa agreed easily with a wave of his hand, "that explains why you are still in town."

"Yeah, it would be a shame if we had to stay here for this long only to be told that we are not needed anymore", Maple chimed in.

"Do you know if Pel will get back before tomorrow?", Pandora suddenly asked the group. She had sort of hoped to see him before they left, and maybe buy him some more food. She would have to find an excuse though.

"Oh Pel…he missed his delivery shortly after you left", Burns said in a sombre tone, with the mood in the room suddenly dropping.

Pandora was almost about to ask what happened when you missed a delivery, when it struck her that these people _didn't_ miss a delivery, because they couldn't afford to simply miss them like one missed a deadline. The only reason why one would miss one was if they literally _could not_ make it.

How many _children_ simply died like this? A good chunk, or so Yonsa had said, but that had been about those old enough to start making their own networks. But they made their networks exactly because they were safer than the roads, so how many before that? And even afterwards…Yonsa's friends hadn't had an insignificant number of _missed deliveries_ among them either, and that was likely some of the more experienced couriers. He had only been away for a few years, but so many had _missed a delivery_ , and he hadn't batted an eye at that.

And just like that, the weight of it all tumbled down on her. The sheer scale of it all was so overwhelming that she had to bury her head in her hands to keep from looking at any of those still there. Finally forcing herself to look up, she studied each of the couriers' faces in turn.

 _How many of them will be gone in a year?_ , she thought with despair, _in two? Three?_

"We have to go save Pel", she heard herself say.

"Pandora, listen to me, it's no use to-", Yonsa started to say.

"We are going out there to save him NOW! Or I am", Pandora punched the table as she interrupted Yonsa, forcing everyone's eyes on her.

"It's been four days already", Yonsa began arguing, "whatever is left, you don't want to see."

"I said I was going. I can't force anyone to join me, but _I am going to save him_ ", Pandora reiterated fully determined.

As Yonsa was about to come with another irrelevant argument, Lafiel grabbed his arm and reminded him that they still had a day before their train came. As he started to open his mouth to speak yet again, she brought her lips all the way to his ear and whispered something that made him ashen, before finally giving in with a reproachful look at her and a mention of playing dirty with old tales.

Whatever Lafiel had whispered, Pandora didn't care. All that mattered was that they were going

"It's a fool's errand", the other couriers muttered as Pandora's group left. Pandora didn't care about what they thought.

As it turned out, it was a good thing that Yonsa had come along. If not for his knowledge, she wouldn't even have known where the Kain route was, let alone what to do once she found it. Pel wouldn't simply be lying on the road somewhere, waiting for them to rescue him. If he had, others would have found him already.

That meant that he had to have left the road, either in panic or deliberately, and she would need to know _where_ he left the road and in what direction. While she had picked up some tracking skills over the years, she doubted that they would be good enough for something like this. Especially when the trail was four days cold already.

Whatever Lafiel had said to him, it seemed to have worked wonders. None could fault him for trying to rush through the route. Compared to before, they were practically at a snail's pace. Either that, or he simply wanted no one to be able to question that the search was over when they reached the other side.

Sometimes, he would spot something insignificant and head off the path for sometimes up to 15 minutes before coming back, shaking his head and moving on. They continued like that for hours, with each hour darkening Pandora's mood more than the last.

Finally, just as twilight started to descend on them, Yonsa found something that made him move off the path for longer than he had ever before. Pandora noticed that they were heading towards some tall cliffs, but in the dimming light, she couldn't see what exactly it was that made Yonsa choose this way.

As they neared the cliffs, growling and scratching sounds started becoming louder and louder.

 _Beowolves_ , Pandora realized, and just as she did so, she sprinted towards the sound as fast as she could.

She came upon them in a flurry of blue fire and kicks that sent them flying. Her teammates were somewhere behind her, she was sure, but her number one goal was to find what the pack had been gathering around.

Tearing through them, she burned off half the face of one and severed the arms of several by a well-made punch to the shoulder that burned through it like hot butter. With her going like this, it was a matter of moments before she reached the cliffs and saw what they had been trying to reach.

A small opening in the rocks, just wide enough for her to fit through if she squeezed, but not wide enough for a Beowolf, and all the way at the back was a sobbing child. The Grimm had tried clawing the opening wider in an effort to reach him, and they had actually made good progress on that. Four days of doing nothing else would do that.

Behind her, the last of the Grimm was being slain by her teammates, but she paid them no mind. The child, still too terrified to look up, hadn't yet noticed that it was safe to come out. In front of his feet was a single piece of brown packing, an empty waterskin and nothing more.

"Pel", she said softly, voice almost breaking at the name.

At her voice, he suddenly looked up. Seeing that the Grimm were gone, he bolted into her arms, sobbing uncontrollably.

"It's alright, we're here. You're safe", she muttered softly to him over and over again as she stroked his hair gently.

When she noticed the others crowding around her, she said the first thing that came to her mind, "we are taking him back with us."

"You can't take them all in", Yonsa muttered almost too low for her to hear, "not even your family could do that."

"But we have to do _something_ ", Pandora said as much to herself as anyone else, Pel still crying too much to notice anything but that she was here and that he was grabbing onto her, "this has gone on for too long. _Something_ has to change."


	23. Just another normal dinner

So, this idea was repurposed from some random interaction to actually mean something in the overall plot. enjoy.

* * *

 **Just another normal dinner**

 **Lafiel  
** Lafiel practically felt Yonsa tremble beside her as she knocked on the red and gold painted double doors. He didn't really tremble, but the arm linked with hers was tense, as if he was ready to yank both of them back at the slightest sign of danger. Not that that would be very effective with Seishin standing behind them, blocking the way with his enormous stature.

She could empathize with him though. It wasn't like she was entirely comfortable meeting Pandora's parents for a formal dinner like this. They were presentable though, Lafiel had made sure of that. Yonsa in his dark green suit and her in her royal blue dress, both bought in Atlas but fit for the Mistralian style nonetheless. A set to match.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Seishin nervously probing his hair for the umpteenth time. He had spent an hour getting it to sit _just right_. Far more time than he had spent picking out his formal black tie suit.

Truth be told, she would have preferred not having this dinner, but being in Mistral and _not_ meeting with Pandora's parents might very well have been considered an insult. They had only seen it a few times, but even in Atlas, Pandora's parents had enough sway to bend the rules in whatever way they liked if they so desired. She didn't want to think about what they could do here in Mistral.

As if responding to her thoughts, the double doors opened simultaneously to show Navajo ready to greet them at the door with a formal bow. He was out of his janitor uniform and in a long tailed black coat with white gloves. His change of clothes and different manners didn't stop the slight tug backwards on her arm though.

"Esteemed guests, just in time as always", he said respectfully. They were five minutes early actually, "would you follow me to the west terrace? The servants can take any coats or other _Huntsman tools_ that you may have decided to bring with you."

None of them had any coats, the weather was too hot for that, and not even Yonsa had been willing to try smuggling his dagger into this place for fear of being caught with it. Having confirmed so, they followed Navajo through the halls until they came to a large open terrace with people milling about already. Too many people for this to be a small intimate dinner with Pandora's parents.

Tables with refreshments were set up close to flower pots and granite benches. In the distance, the sun was colouring the sky an early shade of orange. All in all, it was quite a beautiful scenery, especially when combined with the many extravagant dresses in all the colours of the rainbow.

These were the friends and acquaintances of the Azura family, and Lafiel didn't know where in the hierarchy the heiress' Huntsmen teammates would stand or what was expected of them. What made it worse was that whatever her or Seishin did, it would reflect on the rest of the Faunus race.

"I'll go get us something to drink", Yonsa said and slipped his arm from hers. When he returned with the drinks, he didn't take it back, and he kept a small space between them that hadn't been there before. Even platonic as their interactions so far had been, it would be better not to draw any attention in this company.

Aside from Navajo, who had disappeared soon after showing them to the terrace, none of them knew anyone there. Lafiel thought she recognized a few people that Pandora had been on dates with, but without knowing anything else about them, approaching them seemed a bad idea.

Instead, the three of them found themselves huddling together in a corner, hoping that no one would think them out of place. Being the one with the most eye-catching Faunus trait, Lafiel made sure to keep her back towards the wall.

"When would it be acceptable for us to leave?", Yonsa wondered, fiddling with his shirt sleeve as he did so.

"Not until after we have eaten", Seishin commented, before continuing with a small nervousness in his voice, "there will be food, right?"

"Pandora said it would be a dinner", Lafiel answered, "the guests are simply mingling a bit before they eat."

"So after dinner?", Yonsa suggested.

"We can't be the first to leave. Think of how it might reflect on Pandora if her friends left at the first chance", Lafiel explained.

"I could have rooms prepared for you to sleep in. That way, you wouldn't have to leave at all", Pandora's voice suddenly said amused from in front of them.

She was wearing a new red and gold Mistralian style dress with her emblem carved in a black stone broche that was attached to her chest. Her normally shoulder length hair was done up in an elaborate Mistralian fashion that would no doubt have taken hours of sitting still to get done.

"Not on your life", Yonsa muttered too low for anyone but Lafiel to hear.

"I thought you said it would be a dinner", Seishin commented, "I didn't expect this many people if we were to just meet your parents for a _simple_ dinner."

"Change of plans", Pandora said without sounding sorry at all, "besides, if I had told you that it had been changed, you might not have come at all."

"With good reason. One wrong move in this company, and we might never be heard from again", Yonsa muttered darkly, but still loudly enough for Pandora to hear.

"Don't be so dramatic", Pandora waved him off, "most of these people are just as well-adjusted as I was before coming to Beacon. Besides, they are less likely to try and get rid of you if they know that you re friends with one of the others here."

"Isn't it enough that we know you?", Lafiel enquired curiously.

"One is good, two are better", Pandora recited from memory, before taking Lafiel by the shoulder and stretching her arm out towards the gathered guests, "and since you haven't picked up on it yet, these are not just rich people that you have to fear the wrath of. They are rich potential _investors_ with interests as varied as the flora of Anima. Some want to make quick Lien, some want to build nations, some are nature lovers, some like a bit of philanthropy and others want to use their wealth to better Human-Faunus relations."

The last was said with clear emphasis towards Lafiel. It only took a moment for Lafiel to catch the not so subtle hidden meaning behind those words.

"You think some of these might want to help fund the reclamation of Menagerie's desert?", Lafiel asked in shock. The idea of going here of all places for funding had never occurred to her.

" _If_ you can sell them on the idea that it is possible _and_ provide them some form of benefit. Monetary, PR, self-gratification or a combination, it depends on the person", Pandora explained, "for instance, a growing Menagerie economy is going to lead to a lot of demand for goods and other services. If they are already through the door with a good reputation to boot, then it is likely that their companies will be able to reach this new market before any competitors can get there. Or they could use the initial stages of reclaiming Menagerie's desert as a proof of concept for their product to convince Vacuo that by buying _their_ services, it might return to the lush state that it was once in."

"I see…", Lafiel nodded in understanding. She would have to think further on her arguments before she tried approaching one, "thank you for arranging this for me."

"I didn't do it just for you", Pandora said with a small laugh, "I have plans of my own that need the groundwork to be laid tonight and in the coming days."

"What plans?", Lafiel asked curious. It was the first that she had heard of this.

"It's too early to reveal them yet, but I promise that you three will be the first to know after the tournament is over", Pandora promised, "and when that happens, I also have something that I want to ask each of you."

"If this is about the courier thing, then you can't solve it just by throwing Lien at it", Yonsa suddenly said, "people need something to do, and the people of Anima want to stay in touch with each other even over great distances."

"I know that, and I wasn't thinking of doing something like that", Pandora answered, before continuing in a slightly joking tone "that said, you can't have Pel back. He is mine now."

"Where _is_ he anyway", Lafiel wondered.

"I let him stay in his room", Pandora answered, "I don't think he is ready to meet this many…different kind of people yet."

"Yeah, that might be true", Lafiel said with a sidelong glance at Yonsa, "so, what will you do with him in the future?"

"I was thinking of enrolling him in a combat school when he is ready not to make a fool of himself on the first day", Pandora answered, "it seems our impromptu little rescue has convinced him that he wants to be a Huntsman in the future."

"Anyway, enough about him", Pandora said suddenly and clapped her hands together, "the night is still young, and you have a lot of mingling to do if you want to get anywhere. Follow me, and I'll give you a few tips and pointers, before sending you off for someone that might be sympathetic to your cause."

And with that, she turned and left. Lafiel had hoped to get a bit more time before being thrown into the deep end, but similar to her training as a Huntress, sometimes, you just had to sink or swim.

"You're coming too", Lafiel said and grabbed Yonsa's arm to drag him along, leaving Seishin behind. He could take care of himself…as long as he didn't try hitting on someone already engaged.


	24. The high ground

So, it has been quite some time since my last update. I could say that it is because I have had a lot to do, but it was much more about just getting started in the first place. Not having a strict writing schedule really lowers my output. Anyway, the longer waiting period did allow me to incorporate ideas here and there that otherwise would have been lost, so I guess it wasn't all bad.

Anyway, enjoy the next few chapters!

* * *

 **The high ground**

 **Lafiel  
** Exhaling, Lafiel looked across the smooth tiles to their opponents. Team MDDR was one of Haven's second-year teams. The team consisted of three girls and a boy. From what little they had been able to find out about them, they seemed a decent enough team. It was a shame that they had to meet Lafiel's team in the first round.

 _They still have the next tournament though_ , Lafiel comforted herself with that thought.

On the other team, the girl with her hands entirely encapsulated within large conical drilling gauntlets playfully punched the girl with a bo staff as thick as an arm while pointing in their general direction. The other girl shook her head, but couldn't entirely keep down her own smirk.

At the other side of the team were the boy with his assault-rifle looking weapon and the girl with her crossbow with a drum auto-loader. Compared to the other two, those two seemed much more intent on studying their opposition.

 _Two medium ranged and two melee_ , Lafiel mused, _we should have the advantage in long range if the terrain allows it._

That thought led her to reminisce about their strategy session prior to the match. She hoped that the terrain would favour them, or else they would have a much harder time if Pandora's strategy was to work.

Just then, a ding signalled that the two terrain types had been chosen; mountainous on MDDR's side and broken rocky ground on their side.

"Plan A", Lafiel told her teammates.

Barely a moment later, the bell to start the match rung. Wasting no time, Lafiel and Seishin began laying down a hail of covering fire while slowly backing into their own half of the field. Yonsa rushed backwards to set up his nest and Pandora kept pace with Lafiel and Seishin, ready to pounce on any that might unexpectedly rush them.

Realizing that they couldn't win in an all-out firing match, the other team split into two groups, with the boy-girl duo heading up the mountain slope while the other two found cover behind a large rock.

It wasn't much later that Lafiel's team assembled where Yonsa had set up. Seishin stood front and centre, ready to block any that tried to get to Yonsa, while Lafiel and Pandora stood ready at either side of Seishin, ready to strike out and pounce on more mobile foes that tried to encircle them.

The Deathstalker formation, they called it.

Just then, a sound of whizzing air appeared from above them.

"Scatter!", Yonsa yelled a moment before an explosion to Lafiel's left nearly knocked her off her feet.

Barely a moment later, a second whizzing sound made her look up in time to see a mortar round falling from the sky. This one landed in the middle of where their formation had been before.

 _The bo staff!_ , Lafiel realized, _and spotters on the mountain to secure high ground and direct strikes._

"New plan! Pandora, find and neutralize the girl with the bo staff", Lafiel yelled out her instructions, "Yonsa, be ready to support me while I suppress the mountain top. Seishin, stay with Yonsa and guard him."

Not wasting any time, Lafiel began sprinting across the battlefield while making sure to keep enough distance between herself and Pandora to not accidentally be hit by a stray mortar round. She needn't have bothered though, as the mortar rounds kept targeting Yonsa and Seishin.

This unfortunately also meant that Yonsa was unable to suppress the two at the mountain top, as they rained down fire upon Lafiel and Pandora. Without scopes though, they weren't particularly effective at this range.

Pushing through, Lafiel reached cover at the foot of the mountain and there waited for Pandora to reach the mortar nest. Her heart was beating fast, faster than she had first thought it would during this match. Lack of information on your enemy truly was a major handicap.

Bang!

The unmistakable sound of Yonsa's sniper rifle firing was all the signal Lafiel needed to duck out of cover and start climbing the mountain.

Thrice, her opponents stuck out their heads and tried to stop her ascent, and thrice, Yonsa's precision high-impact rounds sent them back behind cover again.

Just as Lafiel reached the summit, a ding alerted her that someone had been eliminated.

"And with a splendid surprise move, Ms. Dandelion has managed to take out Mr. Kuma in one quick attack", one of the commentators said to Lafiel's surprise.

"Yes, her Sand-shark Semblance's ability to let her swim through the ground was sure to leave anyone surprised, but burying Mr. Kuma to the chest before he even knew she was there was an inspired first move", the other commentator continued.

As soon as they heard the news, her two opponents peaked out from behind cover, and with them no longer instantly being shot at, they started advancing on her. Two-on-one weren't odds that Lafiel was comfortable dealing with without some support.

There wasn't anything to do though, she simply had to try and contest the high ground while Pandora finished up below.

Readying Fuchskrallen, she closed to engage in melee.

The boy's assault rifle split into two batons, as he rushed to meet her, while the girl drew a small sabre and stayed a little back, ready to assist when needed.

While she did have an advantage one-on-one, the girl kept disrupting the openings she made. At the same time, she couldn't just turn her back on the boy to focus on the girl. At this rate, she would lose, but if she could stretch it out long enough, then that should be fine.

Booing from the audience nearly drowned out the ding of another person going down. Lafiel knew the source of this booing; Yonsa was following his instructions. Unfortunately for any that wished to see an exciting match, those instructions meant that instead of stopping and fighting Dandelion, he would continue running from her until either he or she ran out of breath. Lafiel would bet on Yonsa winning that race any day of the week.

"How is the situation?", Lafiel asked into her headset as she fended off a baton strike and forced her opponent back with a kick to the stomach.

"She is surprisingly persistent", Yonsa answered her, "but if you can get closer to the western edge, I should be able to help you a little."

With those words, she retreated back and towards the west. Her two opponents, perhaps sensing an opening, rushed to follow her.

Bang!

A small rock at the foot of the boy exploded into tiny little pieces that scattered across his leg, leaving marks on his pants. Bang! A second shot whizzed past his should and into a wall behind him.

It wasn't the high-precision shots that she was used to, but the surprise of the attack alone made her two opponents duck for cover. With a small satisfaction, Lafiel noted that the shots had stopped the booing as well.

Even after her two opponents realized that he wouldn't be as precise, they still advanced on her much more carefully than they had before. It was enough to buy Lafiel a bit more time, even if she was still losing. A glance at her Scroll showed that she only had about 25% left.

Unfortunately, her low Aura level was visible to her opponents on the big screen as well. As soon as the girl pointed this out to the boy, they became much more aggressive than they had been before.

Even though they were expending their Aura recklessly, they continued to chip away at her remaining Aura until she was one good strike away from being eliminated.

Trying to stave them off a little longer, she launched a volley of fire at the boy as she advanced on the girl with every intention of putting her between the two of them. The girl, surprised at the sudden charge, lifted her crossbow to defend against one of her claws while bringing her sabre up to strike down at her.

Unfortunately for Lafiel, the boy hadn't been staggered as much as she wanted, so just as she was about to deflect the sabre strike, she registered a baton coming at her from the side. On instinct, she raised her claws to block the first strike and then had to watch as the sabre came down on her.

Hitting her Aura directly, the sabre skirted off to the side and Lafiel was through to where she had wanted to be, but not without taking one last strike. Strangely though, the ding hadn't sounded. Knowing why made her react a second quicker than her still confused opponents, and she proceeded to unleash a volley into the back of the girl.

"Sorry, habit", came Yonsa's voice a moment later in her headset.

"Too late to retract it now", Lafiel answered wryly, "might as well keep it up at this point."

It took a moment longer for the commentators to figure out what had happened and tell the audience. When the boy and girl heard the news, they took a look at his mostly intact Aura levels on the big screen and groaned.

As if to further bring them down, the ding sounded once again, with the commentators mentioning the irony of Dandelion being taken out in a surprise attack by Pandora.

With her objective now completed, Lafiel found that she wanted to do more than just buy time.

"Take out the boy after my opening and then the girl shortly after", Lafiel instructed as she rushed forward to put herself in between her two opponents. Their counter-attacks were brushed off of her Aura without Lafiel giving it much thought. For a moment, she wondered if this was how Pandora felt.

Her initial attack forced him to retreat back far enough for Lafiel to turn and jump towards the girl. Grabbing her around the waist, Lafiel brought her along as she went over the side of the mountain. This left the still stunned boy wide open to receive a shot straight to the chest, sending him out of the match.

As they fell, Lafiel tried angling the girl up for a good angle, and a moment later, her efforts were rewarded when a second bang rang out and completely shattered the girl's aura.

Lafiel hadn't expected her aura to shatter completely, and the look of panic in the other girl's eyes told her that she didn't have anything that could break her fall. Making a split-second decision, Lafiel moved herself below the other girl just in time to hit the ground on her back with a force that took the breath out of her.

Ding!

"And with a triple knockout, Team LPYS wins the round!", one of the commentators announced, "surprisingly, Ms. Lafiel is among those still standing, but erhh, can we get someone to make sure that they are alright?"

"Are you ok?", Yonsa asked into her ear, sounding genuinely worried despite knowing that her Aura was still at the 17% that it had been for the last while.

Lafiel looked down into the eyes of the other girl. They were wide as saucers and brimming with tears, but still very much alive and awake.

"Yeah, I'm fine", Lafiel answered him with a relaxed sigh, which made the other girl look up at her in confusion. Lafiel indicated her headset with her eyes just as she added, "thanks, by the way."

"Anytime", Yonsa said elated, before adding, "actually, let's try not to do this again."

Lafiel chuckled just as the two other girls of team MDDR arrived on the scene and pried their third member away from Lafiel to check her over for any injuries. Having found none, they both enveloped her in a tight hug.

Their last member was on his way down the mountain the normal way, and while Lafiel got up and brushed herself off, the rest of her team arrived as well. Their reunion was much more subdued than team MDDR's, though both Pandora and Lafiel jokingly ripped into Seishin for being defeated so quickly.

It wasn't until after they had parted with the other team in the locker room that Pandora grew serious again.

"About the next match, are you still alright with continuing with my strategy?", she asked as she looked at Lafiel.

Lafiel thought back to what they had agreed before the match, and even though she wanted to be selfish and object, she knew that she wouldn't. It had been a secret dream of hers to win the tournament as the first Faunus to ever do so, but she knew that winning it wouldn't help her achieve her dreams. It would help Pandora a lot though.

Furthermore, what would it look like if a team of two Faunus and two humans elected only the humans to move on to the next round? Then again, she _was_ the team leader, and with an even split, everyone _had_ to know that the Faunus half of the team was okay with the decision.

In the end though, what ultimately decided it for her was that she _wanted_ Pandora to succeed with her new project, and in order to do so, they had devised a strategy to maximize their chances of getting through the first and second rounds. Changing their strategy now might just have them end up as they did in Atlas, and that would fulfil none of their desires.

"Yeah, I'm still okay with it", Lafiel answered Pandora evenly.

Nodding, Pandora turned to Yonsa and asked, "are you ready?"


	25. A belated debut

**A belated debut**

 **Yonsa  
** Yonsa wanted very much to not be here right now. And yet here he was, heading out of the locker room with Pandora at his side. Their second match was moments away, and he was beginning to doubt whether agreeing to his plan had been such a good idea.

Objectively, he could see that it _was_ a good plan, and he _had_ agreed with it before and after their first match. They had even handicapped themselves during the first match to implement this plan to its fullest effect.

Still, if he was to go through with it, he wouldn't be able to take it back. All of Remnant would have video recordings detailing his Semblance, a secret that he had until now managed to keep to four people. The parts of it that had been accidentally revealed in the first match weren't so bad, so long as people didn't begin to wonder about what else it might be capable of. Pandora had been a harsh lesson on how little information an observant person needed to begin guessing eerily close to the truth.

Still, there was a major difference between people starting to guess and people _knowing_. If, after graduation, he came to blows with someone on the road, then it would be unlikely that they had both remembered that one first-tier match out of 16 of that specific year and then begun to guess what else might be possible from a not all too flashy Semblance and performance.

One match out of eight with a flashy performance however...Those, people tended to remember much more clearly.

It all still led back to whether he was prepared to give up that moment of surprise, his hidden trump card. Had Lafiel been the one to ask him, he would probably had said yes without much second-guessing. She knew how much this meant to him, and if she would have still asked for it, he trusted that her reasons would hold up under scrutiny.

But she hadn't asked it of him; Pandora had. Even when he had started probing the subject with her, she had deliberately avoided telling him what she thought he should do. He knew why she did so. she wanted it to be _his_ decision either way.

…Which again led back to whether he thought helping Pandora's cause was worth giving this up. Not even her cause, he reminded himself, her _chance_ at making it a cause. Even if she won the tournament, there were no guarantees that her further plans would succeed.

Even having been told the general outline of her plans, a part of him still thought parts of it to be unworkable, and another, _more cynical_ , part of him wondered whether her solution might not just make everything worse. Rates were relatively high and the work steady for those that managed to survive their first couple of years, but if many suddenly started surviving, then that might change.

Even with these doubts, her dream was one that he admired greatly. Not in the same sense that he admired Lafiel's aspirations, nor how he admired the quiet familial strength of Seishin's dreams. While both Lafiel and Pandora were working to improve the life of many people, Yonsa couldn't help but recognize that their motivations for doing so differed from each other.

Where Lafiel sought to improve life for and the respect of her fellow Faunus, Pandora's dreams seemed purer in a sense. More…innocent. It was not something that he often saw. He could probably count on less than half a hand the number of people that he had met with similar motivations.

When he thought of it so, he realized that he _wanted_ her to keep trying, _wanted_ her to keep dreaming. Even if her dreams eventually crashed and burned, he didn't want to be the one that had stopped them short.

Besides, maybe he wouldn't need to always be on guard, always wandering alone from place to place with no thought beyond the next winter. He hadn't spoken with Lafiel about it yet, but before they graduated, he hoped that they would.

"Are you ready?", Pandora asked him one last time as the field was being set.

From where she stood, Yonsa couldn't help but notice how much Lafiel's ear piece stood out on Pandora. He hoped the others wouldn't question it overly.

"Yes", he answered confidently and undid the clasp of his cloak, but kept it resting on his shoulders as if he hadn't.

"Good", she said as the mountains rose to the upper left side, followed by an icy wasteland on the upper right side. Their half of the map had grassland and a savannah, "go for the leader with the shield, but be careful. His Semblance lets him harden his defences as he takes damage, but there seems to be a slight delay to it."

Yonsa didn't want to know how much time she had spent last night going over the recordings of the other team's matches to know that. It always unnerved him to think back on how close she had been in her guesses about his own Semblance by the time that he finally told the rest of the team.

He let the butt end of his spear stick free below his cloak, as if he was holding it in its sniping setup. On the other side, the enemy team, a pair of third years from Vacuo, were setting up their formation with the enemy sable dual-wielder hiding behind the kite shield of his teammate.

Three!

Should he force the fight to the ice? In that steel armour of his, he would have a tough time moving around there, but so would Yonsa as well, and mobility meant more to Yonsa than his opponent.

Two!

Mountains it was then. But how much strength was needed to move him? 100% seemed like overkill, and he would need to save his resources, so 50% would have to do.

One!

At the last moment, Yonsa moved his weight off the back of his feet and angled towards a running position.

Beep!

And then he was off. Boosting his speed by 100% allowed him to close the gap between their two teams before his cloak even managed to hit the ground. As he ran, he redirected his spear to thrust at the upper right shoulder of the armoured opponent.

Though his surprise at the sudden attack was written all over his face, he still managed to reposition his shield just in time to let the spear skirt sideways across it. Yonsa didn't bother to stop or redirect his momentum, but simply followed the spear around the right side of his opponent.

Just as the spear skirted free of the shield, the second opponent turned his head to look at the sudden intruder, but he was still too surprised to make a move as Yonsa grabbed hold of his spear with both hands and used the butt end to whack the second opponent in the head with.

Without waiting for the second guy to land on his back or the first to reposition himself to deal with the sudden flanking attack, Yonsa followed the momentum from the whack to spin in a circle and then swiftly switched to boosting his strength by 50% just as he planted his right foot solidly on the other's still raised shield.

With the extra strength, he sent his opponent flying a fair distance backwards towards the mountains. Yonsa didn't wait for the crash of steel against stone to set off after him, though without using his Semblance this time.

Even though he had been thrown to the ground, his opponent still almost managed to get up by the time Yonsa was upon him again. Seeing the threat coming, he swung his sword wildly in front of him and used the extra space to back up a bit and get into a proper fighting stance.

Yonsa wouldn't have minded the action if his opponent had not nearly backed himself up against the mountainside. How was he to get around him without there being space for it? He would have to move the fight to their half of the arena. The savannah should do well enough for his purposes.

"Holy dust, that was quite a kick", his opponent said as Yonsa started circling to the left. His opponent's eyes followed his every movement warily now.

"You're a big guy", Yonsa responded with a shrug as he let the tip of his spear clink against the rock floor, drawing his opponent's eyes to it.

 _I could drag out the conversation a bit longer_ , Yonsa mused, his instructions only really detailed keeping the other busy until Pandora finished with hers, _but no, I need to get around him as quickly as possible._

Quickly, he made a stab at his opponent, but got it deflected by the other's sword near instantly. His opponent was definitely more than wary enough, and quicker than one might expect in that getup.

"Slower than I would have thought", he said with a bit of mirth in his voice, "are you toying with me?"

"Perhaps", Yonsa answered cheekily, "or perhaps I simply prefer winning by attrition rather than all out attacks."

"You have picked the wrong opponent then", the other guy said with a chuckle.

 _I know_ , Yonsa wanted to say, but kept it in. Better to not reveal that he had had pre-knowledge of the other's Semblance and still gone after him. That might have lead the other to begin wondering the why of it.

"You know", Yonsa said just as he made another stab that forced his opponent a step back, almost making him trip over a rock, "I almost feel bad for bringing you here. All I have to do to win this is climb this cliffside and then I can attack you indiscriminately from afar until you run out of Aura."

"I think you might run out of bullets before you break through my defences", his opponent said and shifted his shield slightly.

"Is that a bet that you are willing to make?", Yonsa responded with a raised eyebrow. With most of his supply of bullets sewn inside his cloak, he only had a couple left on his person.

"What are you suggesting then?", he asked warily.

"That we move this to the savannah", Yonsa answered easily, "less rocks for you to fall over. Not like I want people to think I only beat you because you fell on a rock."

"And I'm supposed to trust that you won't suddenly attack while we relocate?", his opponent said with a smirk.

"Of course, Huntsman's honour and all", Yonsa said, though he couldn't keep down a smirk at saying that. When it looked as if that wouldn't cut it, he added, "and the cameras are all rolling. Would be bad PR to stab you in the back."

Had this been out on the roads of Anima, Yonsa would have had no qualms about doing just so. Then again, if this fight had happened in Anima, Yonsa would have likely just fled from the fight right away. There was little to gain by picking random fights on the road, and entirely too much to lose.

"…Alright", his opponent agreed warily, still keeping his eyes firmly locked on Yonsa's spear.

"Perfect", Yonsa said and took a forceful step forward, making the other immediately scramble two backwards.

This kept up until they were well inside the savannah, where Yonsa suddenly stopped without warning. His opponent took one more than was necessary, but this didn't bother Yonsa overly. Range favoured his longer spear than the other's shorter sword.

Recognizing this as well, his opponent tried suddenly charging Yonsa's position. Yonsa had to use his spear to deflect the incoming sword slash upwards just as he ducked below the other's sword arm and used his left hand to punch the elbow joint of his opponent.

The steel armour almost made him wish that he hadn't. Reflexively, he stretched and clenched his left hand to make sure nothing had broken. His opponent took a brief look at where he had struck as he whistled appreciatingly.

In the distance, near the centre of the ring, Yonsa could see Pandora blasting her opponent with a fireball that took him by surprise. _Perfect!_

The noise of the blast made his opponent try to angle his head to see what was happening behind him, but just as he did so, Yonsa launched an attack that had his spear skirt just across the left side of the other's helmet. Yonsa then boosted his speed by 25% to fall back before his opponent had a chance to retaliate.

With the warning properly sunk in, his opponent focused his entire attention on the fight in front of him yet again. He tried pressing Yonsa into a more decisive duel, but Yonsa kept avoiding it by launching token resistance and then retreating a step or two before using his greater range to force the other a little back again.

If the other believed that he intended to win by attrition, as he had mentioned earlier, then he was in no rush to dissuade him of that opinion.

This kept going for a short while until Yonsa heard a voice in his ear, "25 both in 5 for 3".

 _Finally!_ , he thought excited and followed his instructions. He had to focus on Pandora in the distance to make sure it was her, and as he did so, he felt his Aura dissipate at an alarming rate. When it was finally over, he guessed that he only had about 30% left.

Ding!

A split-second was all it took for his opponent to hear the chime of the bell, understand what it meant and make a decision to rush Yonsa with everything that he got. A split-second decision that, despite Yonsa knowing the bell was about to chime, still managed to catch him by surprise.


	26. Just according to plan

**Just according to plan**

 **Pandora  
** Beep!

Beside her, Yonsa rushed off, leaving his cloak fluttering in the wind for a moment before finally falling to the ground. Pandora quickly followed his example, sprinting as fast as she could towards the enemy team.

As she ran towards them, she saw Yonsa sweep past the shield guy, knock down the dual-wielder and then spin and kick the shield guy an impressive length to the left. A look down at the Scroll hidden on her wrist showed that the stunt had cost him a not insignificant amount of Aura.

 _His Semblance could be deadly_ , she mused as she ran, _if only he had more Aura to fuel it._

Briefly, she wondered how she would have fared with his Semblance instead of her own. Likely still quite well, but it would mean having to change how she fought and how she thought of her own role in combat. Knowing herself, Pandora guessed that she would likely become too absorbed in the fight going on right in front of her to utilize the team-improving aspects of the Semblance.

Besides, as right now showed, the Semblance had the potential for quite the nasty surprises. That did however require their opponents to not know about it to be utilized to the maximum effectiveness. She wasn't sure that her pride could have taken willingly forfeiting the chance to win training fights in the day-to-day rhythm just to increase her chances of winning a more serious fight later.

As she reached the downed dual-wielder, she launched into the air with a small ball of fire ready in her right palm. The dual-wielder only just managed to roll out of the way before she landed on his previous location and burned a hole through the tiles.

"Woah, were you trying to kill me?", the dual-wielder exclaimed in alarm as he scrambled to his feet.

"No, just break you", Pandora answered and let the flames fizzle out.

She hadn't expected to hit him with that, but on the off-chance that he was slower than she thought, then she didn't want to not take the chance to end the fight then and there.

Not wanting to give him room to back off, she advanced on him with a flurry of blows and kicks that he only barely managed to parry and dodge. His defences weren't impenetrable though, and she did manage to land glancing blows here and there.

Like a tiger refusing to let go of its prey, Pandora kept pushing on her dual-wielding opponent. That didn't mean that he was defenceless however. His parries were becoming more accurate as he got used to the strength and speed of her strikes.

Just as he was becoming more used to her fighting style, so was she becoming more used to his. Openings just out of reach became clearer to her, and those within reach, she tried to exploit at every turn.

In one such strike, he surprised her by dropping a small tear-shaped ceramic object from his belt and then backing off as fast as he could, leaving him vulnerable to an attack.

She only had a split second to shield her face as the explosive went off right in front of her. The greaves on her arms and armour on her chest managed to direct the worst of the explosion away from her vital areas, saving her some Aura, but the acrid scent of burned cloth and hair still lingered in the air.

Without wasting a second, she immediately sent a fireball straight into the chest of her opponent. The sudden counterattack managed to take him completely off-guard, and a good chunk of his Aura disappeared as a result.

"Okay, I get it. No more explosives", her opponent coughed, "jeez, for such a small girl, you sure pack a mean punch."

Pandora doubted that he would refrain from throwing another at her if he got the chance, but surprise attacks lost much of their effectiveness the moment that the opponent became aware of their existence.

Once more, she attacked him, but without much effect. Not so little that she wouldn't win eventually, but not enough to win the fight quickly. Besides, he might have more surprises hidden up his sleeve.

But so did she.

"25 both in 5 for 3", she spoke softly into her headset.

She had thought that her pride would have objected more than it did to this way of winning the fight. Maybe it was because she knew that it wasn't about winning the fight for herself, but just about moving on in the tournament.

This was part of why she had chosen Yonsa over Lafiel to join her in the second round. Pandora trusted Lafiel to be slightly better at winning melee fights than Yonsa, but he was much better at stalling and provided utility that none of the others did.

As the last tournament had brutally shown her, it wasn't about whether the individual fighters were stronger than their opponents. It was about whether the team was stronger.

Not wasting anymore time than necessary, she attacked her opponent again. As she had done before, she started with a kick to the left shin and then followed by an attempted punch to the back of the right hand that was trying to cut into her exposed leg.

As before, he managed to just ward off her punch by turning the sword towards her attack, but just as he did so, she felt a feeling best described as a cold surface held just above the back of her neck. As soon as she felt it, she used her increased speed to grab the turned swordhand with her other hand and then followed it up by using her increased strength, positional advantage and his weakened stance from her kick to pull him forwards and off of his feet.

As he fell towards her, eyes shining with surprise and confusion as to what had just happened, she moved out of the way, let go of his wrist and moved her hand onto to his back to push him into the ground. He managed to hit the ground with a thump and a gasp of air being forced out of his lungs, but before he had time to register what had just happened, she let her Semblance flare up in her hand on his back.

This close, her blue flames shattered his Aura in moments. As soon as she saw this, she stopped the flames, but his loose clothes still got a bit scorched despite how careful she had tried to be.

Ding!

"And Mr. Peridot is out!", the commentators announced excited, "but oh look, Mr. April seems to be trying to avenge his comrade already!"

Pandora turned her head to see what was happening just in time to watch Yonsa jump back as he was deflecting an incoming blow with the tip of his spear. Having deflected the strike to the right side, Yonsa kept the momentum of the spear going and smashed the butt end of it into shield guy's helmet.

The sudden counter-strike left the opponent visibly staggered, with his head rolling backwards. Too staggered to realize that the tip of the spear was coming around again. An unconscious shifting of his shield made the spear tip skirt off of the top of it and then change course upwards, crashing into the middle side of the helmet with a metallic clink sound.

With his opponent still reeling, Yonsa fell further back to put more distance between his opponent and himself. Most people would have probably expected him to use the opportunity to press the attack, but Pandora did not.

She had seen the direction that his spear had had before being redirected by the shield, seen the move done on more than a few Grimm. It wasn't a move meant to safely incapacitate an opponent in the ring. It was a move meant to rip out the throat of whoever was in front of him.

If the shield guy hadn't managed to deflect it, or if he wasn't concentrating on reinforcing his Aura at the throat, which was unlikely given his staggered state, then this fight could have ended right then and there, but much more bloodily than anyone would have wanted.

Combined with what had happened in their last mission, it made Pandora remember something that she had almost forgotten in the years since their first mission; if Yonsa felt backed into a corner, he would strike back with everything that he had, but unlike most others, he was willing to go for the throat.

She doubted that he had meant to do so now, but that his natural reaction had been to immediately go for the kill unnerved her somewhat. Still, if she was to succeed with her plans, then she would need to come to grips with it. Not accept it, she didn't think that she could ever do that, but at least understand and live with it.

Before anything more could happen, she hurried over to join her teammate against their common opponent. She positioned herself opposite of Yonsa to force the shield guy to split his attention evenly between the two of them.

"You could just give up now", Pandora suggested as she sneaked a peek at the Scroll on her wrist. Yonsa only had 21% left.

If only she had been able to switch from one enhancement to the other in rapid succession, he might have had more. Unlike him, she could only do both or one or the other, but not one after the other. Switching so rapidly between them always left her stumbling.

"I don't think so", the shield guy said defensively, "he can't have much left after that, and after him, it's just you and me."

"You will have to reach me first", Yonsa pointed out while emphasizing the greater reach of his speed.

While her opponent was talking about taking out Yonsa, Pandora noticed that his eyes never let her be out of sight. Clearly, she mused with a bit of pride, he knew that she was the greater threat of the two. Especially having seen how quickly she managed to take out his teammate, he would know that his Semblance wouldn't save him if she managed to get her hands on him properly.

Just then, Yonsa thrust forward towards their opponent, stabbing at the armoured chest area. Their opponent tried to bash his thrusts away with his sword, but in order to do so, he had to take his eyes off of Pandora.

She used this lack of attention to close the gap between them, but in the last second, he realized that she was there and tried to bash his shield into her to stop her charge. Having expected this, she managed to stop just outside the shield's range, and just as it was fully extended, she grabbed on to it, stopping him from retracting it.

He immediately changed from trying to ward off Yonsa's strikes to trying to retract his shield arm, but when she wouldn't budge, he brought his sword to bear on her. Unfortunately, since he had stopped paying attention to Yonsa, he didn't manage to see the spear sweeping his legs out from under him until he was already suspended in mid-air.

The surprise of it all made him drop his sword just as he landed heavily on the ground with a loud clang of the plate armour. Wasting no time, Pandora immediately set to burn down his Aura to below 15%.

"And with their quick dispatch of the last member of Team GJMM, Team LPYS has won the match!", the commentators announced, "and this, dear viewers, is why coordination between team members is so important. Isn't that right Morty?"

"Right you are", the second commentator agreed, "however, looking back on the match, it was clear that Team LPYS had more than just coordination. They had a plan that was clearly based off of their own and their opponents' strengths and weaknesses, and they managed to make Team GJMM behave exactly as they wanted to throughout the match. Not to mention that they managed to keep quite the nasty trump cards secret right up until they used them."

"Hmm, I agree with you there", the first commentator said, "and this, dear future Huntsmen and Huntresses, is why you should never discount having more information on your opponents than they have on you. So you better be paying attention in class, because you never know when some arbitrary Grimm fact might just save your life!"

As the commentators kept discussing the match, Pandora helped their downed opponent up. Her parents, and possible future sponsors, would be watching, so it was important to look as good as she could in the spotlight.

"Thanks", he said as he rose from the ground, before he looked back at Yonsa and asked, "where you ever planning to fight me properly?"

"Nope", Yonsa answered easily, "just keep you distracted while Pandora took care of your teammate."

"I see that now", he murmured annoyed, "and if she had lost?"

"She wouldn't have", Yonsa replied without a trace of doubt, before adding, "but if she had, then I guess I wouldn't have minded losing overly much. I'm just here as support anyway."

Pandora felt happy that he hadn't even considered that she might lose her match. That he would have likely given up in the unlikely case that she had lost didn't bother her. After all, both of them knew that his only interest in being here was to help her move on, so if she hadn't even been able to handle that one opponent, then she wouldn't have deserved to move on anyway.

Such a disaster would have crushed her hopes of showing her parents and sponsors that she had the strength to do what she had promised. She didn't need to win the entire tournament to get her point across, though her pride had wanted her to promise such a thing, she just needed to show off her strength in the next round or two.

But that was for tomorrow. Tonight, she needed to celebrate with her team and then scout out what her sponsors thought of the match, along with their overall mood going forward.


	27. Epilogue

This is the last chronological chapter, but I do have some ideas that I would like to work on. Not least of which is a fitting conclusion to Pandora's tournament, but I haven't really yet come up with anything meaningful that wouldn't just feel like it was filling space for the sake of it. Anyway, this story was always advertised as not necessarily being published in chronological order, so I guess I have that excuse.

* * *

 **Epilogue**

 **Yonsa  
** Yonsa could hear the bustle of the port city before he could see it. The mountains surrounding the fjord had a way of amplifying and keeping sounds made within them. To new visitors, it often made for quite the shock when the sounds suddenly appeared when entering through one of the few passes into the fjord.

Behind him, the boy covered his wolf ears from the sudden onslaught of sound.

"It'll be better once we are out of the pass", Yonsa assured the boy and kept onwards, confident that the boy would follow.

From time to time, he scanned the sides of the pass. Bandits were unlikely here, as the town guard of Kuo Lagua guarded both sides of the passes leading into the fjord with vigour. Still, it was far from unheard of for the powerful sea storms driving into the fjord to loosen some of the boulders in the passes.

Once out of the pass, the sound level lessened significantly, and it would continue to decrease as they moved down the slopes towards the port city. The boy even uncovered his ears again.

Kuo Lagua was a bustling port city on the southern coast of Anima. Its unique natural defences made it an ideal port city, but they also restricted its expansion to what could fit and be grown within the fjord. This meant that it could never grow to have a population near those of Mistral and Vale. Not unless it started importing all of its food from elsewhere, at any rate.

Still, its southern isolated position on the continent, proximity to Menagerie and high Faunus population meant that its inhabitants often thought of themselves as a separate realm from the Kingdom of Mistral. It didn't help matters that if any villages in the area needed help, there was only one power in the region that had the forces to protect them.

A beeping sound from his pocket alerted him that his Scroll had gotten back signal. As he checked it, it was a simple update from Seishin that had been dated to four days prior. It said that he was heading back to Vale to volunteer for some security concern regarding the Vytal Festival.

 _Is at Kuo Lagua. Will board next ship and be out of touch afterwards. If you are in Vale in three months, I will head there after the package has been delivered_. He texted back.

As Yonsa put away the device, the boy caught notice of it.

"I thought you said that there weren't any signal out here?", he asked.

"Kuo Lagua has a CCTS booster, but the mountains block the signal from going outside the fjord", Yonsa answered him.

"Oh. Was it from Ms. Azura?", the boy asked.

"No, someone else about something that is of no concern to you. Pandora would have had to travel quite a bit to get a signal, so I would be more surprised if it was her", Yonsa answered him.

The boy nodded and did not ask any further questions.

As they got into the city limits, they had to switch to walking on the sidewalks rather than the main road. Vehicles drove by only once in a while, but Yonsa knew that it would be worse the closer they got to the port and the warehouses.

The boy looked around at the city in wonder, ears twitching excitedly. Yonsa had to remind himself that he was only 10 and had never seen more of the outside world than the small villages that he had brought him through.

The outer city had always been the most colourfully decorated in Kuo Lagua. It was where the young people built their homes and where their children ran and played. As you got closer to the port, first the shops and then the warehouses and industries would begin to dominate.

Yonsa only had to grab the boy by his collar once to stop him from being run over by a car. After that, the boy would always look warily both ways multiple times whenever they crossed a road, and he would always wait for Yonsa to begin crossing first.

The first order of business was to find a ship that could take them to Menagerie. Given the city's proximity to the island, Yonsa knew that there would be some going there regularly, so he had not bothered to check beforehand which one he should take. He hoped that they would not have to wait too long in the city.

The woman at the reception was a Faunus in her mid-thirties with glasses and her hair tied back into a bun. Her panther tail would often swish from side to side if she was agitated, but Yonsa had learned not to stare at it when it did.

"Ah, Mr. Yonsa", she greeted before noticing the boy beside him and raising an eyebrow in question, "family of yours?"

"My charge, Mrs. Cloverfield", Yonsa answered neutrally, "I would like two tickets on the next ship headed for Kuo Kuana."

She looked down at her large Scroll and made a few motions, before looking back up again, "there will be a passenger ship docking here tomorrow that should have space for you. Would you like me to book one or two rooms?"

"One room is enough", he told her, "do you know if The Penguin has any rooms available?"

"I don't think so", she answered as she typed some information into her Scroll, "a cruise ship decided to dock here and has flooded most of the hotels with guests. The Winking Banana might still have some. Now, do you have any luggage to declare?"

"Just the kid", he answered with a motion towards the boy, who was startled to suddenly be spoken about.

She did a double take on the boy, before writing it off as a joke and verbally noting no luggage.

Once all the formalities were done, Yonsa paid for the tickets and began heading out for The Winking Banana. It wasn't hard to find it, as it had a neon sign of an anthropomorphized banana on top of the building.

He only booked one room with two beds for the two of them, and that alone was enough to nearly make him scowl as he handed over his Lien. He had always avoided hotels of this price range when possible, even though he was better funded now than he had been.

The boy looked in awe at the opulence of the reception. Gold-lined chairs with red and white satin covers were spread about delicate glass tables that had tea, coffee and biscuits ready for any guests wanting to use them.

A crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling and provided light in the reception, though mat glass lights on the walls made sure that no space was badly lit. The wallpaper was designed to mimic those of the old royal palaces in Mistral.

All in all, it was one giant display of wealth, and it conflicted greatly with the neon sign on the outside. From what Yonsa had learnt, the old owner of the original hotel had sold it to a company in Mistral, but asked to retain rights to its façade. After seeing what they had done to his hotel, he had put up the sign in protest and refused to take it down no matter what they offered him.

Yonsa dragged the boy out of the reception and up to their room before he had a chance to drool on something. Once there, he checked the prices for room service and the mini fridge and swiftly declared that they would not be eating anything here.

They went out to eat a local diner, where Yonsa had some trout and the boy asked for the same, but then didn't like it and was given some of Yonsa's side dishes in return for the trout. Had it been outside the city, Yonsa would have told him that that was all that would be available, but he did not want to risk causing a scene.

After dinner, he dropped the boy off at the hotel room with strict instructions not to take anything from the mini fridge or leave the room. Yonsa then went out to a local tavern to find out if there was any news that he should be aware of.

With the TV blaring in the background about how a Grimm attack on the eve of the 40th Vytal Festival would affect the festivities going forward, Yonsa ordered a pint of beer and went to work figuring out the local news.

The White Fang had become more emboldened lately, and Grimm that seemed fiercer than before were beginning to appear more often. Some ship crews reported strange things in the waters, while others hoped that they were just seeing things.

In return for their information, Yonsa told them about what was happening outside the fjord. He told them of villages that were no longer there, new villages that had popped up and he put extra emphasis on the small village of Kauryoa, which was being protected year-round by a fully-fledged Huntress. He also made sure to tell them of the new academy that had been founded there, and that it specialized in helping couriers survive and move on to the Huntsmen schools, if they so desired.

The next day, the two of them met the captain of the ship that they were to board. She was a cat Faunus with cat-like slit eyes and a freshly pressed uniform without a single speck of dust on it. She didn't seem to pay the boy much mind, but she did eye Yonsa in a scrutinizing way whenever she thought he wasn't looking. It made him draw his cloak closer around him and keep a tighter grip on his spear.

"I hear that the two of you will be boarding my ship", she said.

"Yes. How soon do you leave?", Yonsa replied and pulled the boy slightly closer to him.

The boy looked up at him with confusion at his actions, but he knew better than to state them now. The captain likewise caught the uncertain look on the boy's face, and her eyes went to his ears.

"If the dockhands keep pace, I cast anchor at 17:30. Anyone not aboard by then will be left behind", she informed them, "if they don't, I will have to wait until tomorrow morning for the tide."

"We will be aboard by then", Yonsa assured her and began to leave with the boy in tow.

Once they had gotten a fair bit away from the docks, the boy looked up at him and asked, "why did you do that?"

Yonsa sighed and looked down at him. He had hoped that he would not have had to have this discussion with him, but he knew that he would have had it before they reached Menagerie, at the latest.

"I am not a Faunus", he stated bluntly. The boy rolled his eyes, as if that was anything new.

"There are…people…in this world, who tend to judge you for what you are and what you are not", Yonsa continued, "to some humans, Faunus are all terrorists and bandits, and to some Faunus, all humans are oppressors, or bear the sin of it anyway. The lack of visible Faunus features on my head allows me to pass for a human to most humans, and my cloak covers enough of my body to leave in doubt if I have Faunus traits elsewhere, like a tail. I have kept my status purposefully ambiguous so far, and I would appreciate it if you did not tell anyone either way."

"But why did you pull me towards you then?", the boy asked confused.

"The captain, she could see more than I wanted her to, and with knowledge comes questions", Yonsa answered, "what would a human want in Menagerie on its own? By including you, I hoped to allay some of those suspicions."

The boy looked down for a while as they continued their walk back to the hotel. When he looked up again, it was as if nothing had happened. Yonsa thought of how fortunate the boy was to be able to lay such concerns to rest so easily.

The two quickly gathered up their belongings and checked out of the hotel, and by 18:00 that day, they were sailing out of the harbour. The trip did not last long, and Yonsa tried to keep to himself for most of the journey.

He allowed the boy to roam the boat, though keeping an eye on him as he did. He had initially had half a mind to keep the boy confined in their cabin, as he didn't know whether the boy would slip and accidentally say something he shouldn't have. That would however have been far too suspicious with the captain already eyeing him queerly. He himself already spent more time than was well in the cabin reading a well-worn book in non-distinct grey wrappings.

As they got closer to Menagerie, the weather got warmer still, and it soon became sweltering to wear his heavy cloak. Yonsa would not take it off however, so he simply endured it as he had before.

Not two weeks after they had left Kuo Lagua, they laid anchor at Kuo Kuana. Yonsa went down the boardwalk in his sweltering cloak and the boy in tow. He could practically feel the stare of the captain drilling into the back of his head.

It made him want to draw up his hood, but that would only draw more attention to him. A newcomer in a cloak could be excused, but a newcomer that tried to hide his face and had a spear with him would draw unwanted attention.

Instead, he pulled the boy closer to him and continued walking determinedly. He eyed a couple of men dressed in the White Fang robes a little bit away. Their eyes swept over him and the boy, before moving on to other things in the crowd.

He would have sighed in relief had he not been afraid that it might be construed as suspicious. The last thing he wanted was for some overzealous White Fang member to knock on Lafiel's door with torches in hand.

When Yonsa looked back at the boy, he was staring at the shops and people mulling about their daily lives in wonder. Yonsa guessed that he had never seen even a tenth of this many Faunus gathered in one place before.

Gently, he pulled the boy along, so as to not get swept up in the crowd. When they got a little further from the docks, the crowd began to lessen until it thinned to nothing more than a normal village buzz. Here, street vendors had set up theirs shops.

One item in particular caught his eye. The thought of what he might do with it brought a small chuckle to Yonsa's lips, and he moved to buy it. The woman manning the shop tried to sell him something to go with it, but he had eyes only for the item in question.

"Why did you buy that?", the boy asked curious.

Yonsa studied the large red gift ribbon that he held in his left hand. It had delicate silver lines embroidered into the cloth running along the length, and it had already been folded into a bow that one could easily attach to anything.

"Because it made me smile", Yonsa responded and handed the bow over to him, "hold this for me until I ask for it."

The boy accepted the bow and held it in front of him with both hands, but looked no less curious than he had been before.

They continued walking through the city until they reached the outskirts of it, where the desert lay. Yonsa turned right and walked along the edge of the desert with the boy following behind him until he spotted what he was looking for.

A little further forward and a little into the desert, a green patch of grass, trees and bushes stood out from the surrounding desert. A small road led from the green gardens that marked the edge of Kuo Kuana, and towards the patch of green in the desert. To Yonsa, it looked bigger than it had been the last time he had been here.

"Is that the place?", the boy asked, "I thought it would be bigger."

"Not yet, but in the future, perhaps", Yonsa commented and led the boy to the patch of green.

Inside, a spacious house was built with a terrace to welcome visitors. A system of water stones led water throughout the garden in miniature rivers and waterfalls. Though one couldn't see it, Yonsa knew that behind the house was a garden with plenty of vegetables, fruit trees and a rotating field of clovers, soybeans and lupines.

Hammering from the left of him alerted him to something that had not been here the last time. A secondary house, smaller than the main one, was in the middle of being constructed. Some of the workers looked over at the two of them, but Yonsa recognized none of them.

Pulling his cloak a little tighter, he drew up to the main house and knocked. When no one answered immediately, he opened the door and went in. The boy hesitated a little before following him. Once inside, he took off his shoes and placed them and his spear at their spots in the front hall, before motioning the boy to do the same.

As he opened the sliding door to the main reception room, he saw Lafiel talking with two Faunus men that he did not recognize either. She was wearing a blue and silver silk dress with divided skirts, a gift from Pandora, and her red hair fell down her shoulders in twin braids. Only the tips still held a shade of purple now.

Upon spotting him, she broke off her conversation midsentence with a cry and ran to envelop him in a warm embrace that he returned in kind. She smelled of lilies and earth.

The two men looked curious at the display, and a little put off at having been abandoned so easily. Only upon extricating herself from the embrace did she spot the boy next to him, who was still holding the red gift ribbon with both hands and staring curiously at the two of them.

"Is he?", she began to ask.

With a sweeping gesture towards the boy and a small grin that he could not suppress, Yonsa proudly said, "I present my gift to you."

The boy looked down at the ribbon, before looking back up at the two of them, realization slowly dawning on him.

"You didn't…steal him or something, did you?", she asked with a nervous laugh.

"Pandora gave him to me", Yonsa merely replied.

At seeing her suspicious look, the boy quickly interjected, "I wanted to come. Ms. Azura didn't force me or anything."

With a sigh of resignation, Lafiel looked at the boy and calmingly said, "I know she didn't. Someone just thinks that he is being funny. Come in. I will have some tea set over and we can talk further in the living room."

She then shooed the two men out, promising that she would continue their conversation at a later date. Yonsa moved to the living room, and the boy, not knowing what else to do, followed him. The table was low to the floor, and Yonsa had to sit cross-legged with his cloak flowing out on the floor behind him.

Lafiel quickly came into the room with a polished brown pot of tea, three similar cups and accompanying coasters. Upon seeing him still in his cloak, she tsked and asked him why he had not taken that off yet.

Yonsa eyed the door leading into the reception hall suspiciously, not sure if someone might jump into the living room at any moment. It was all the answer that Lafiel needed.

"No one will disturb us inside the main house without my permission", she said exasperated, "and I have told you a thousand times that you should not worry about that."

"There are those that do not see it like that", Yonsa commented, but folded the cloak away nonetheless.

"And those people are foolish and not allowed on my land", Lafiel said with a huff, as if that settled the matter.

It was not the first time that they had had this argument, and Yonsa doubted that it would be the last. Even if only those she trusted were allowed here, it would not stop a particularly angry mob from burning down everything if news spread outside her walls.

"I don't believe we have been properly introduced", she turned and said to the boy with a smile and an outstretched hand, "I am Lafiel Lamprose, the owner of this place and unfortunate warden of this bundle of paranoia."

"I-I'm Clover Moore", the boy answered and shook her hand with a nervous glance at Yonsa, who was busy pouring tea for all of them.

"You seem...young", she commented with a sideways glance at Yonsa.

"He isn't here to help in clearing out Grimm or raise money", Yonsa said and grabbed a salt shaker from the table and started pouring it into his cup.

Lafiel stared at him confused as he kept pouring far more than any person would ever add to tea, not that most people added any in the first place. At a point, Yonsa stopped pouring salt into it and started stirring until it had all dissolved.

"Watch this", he said as he pushed the cup over in front of the boy.

The boy knew what Yonsa wanted him to do and laid his hands on the cup. His aura activated and flared, and before Lafiel's eyes, the salt began recrystallizing and sinking to the bottom. The boy stopped when there was no more salt in the water, and some of it quickly began dissolving again.

"Does it only work with saltwater?", Lafiel asked amazed.

"No, from what Pandora told me, his Semblance is to part things", Yonsa explained, "with the right training, he might be able to do it on solids as well."

Yonsa could see the wheels turning in Lafiel's head. Even just separating the salt from the water would provide a huge benefit to their goal. Getting freshwater for the plants to grow had always been a stumbling block that they would have had to overcome.

An industrial desalinization plant would be far too expensive for either of them to buy at this stage, and without a greater supply of water, Lafiel's ability to grow her small oasis would be severely hampered. It was the hope that once the desert soil had been turned to proper mulch with plants to keep it in place and maybe a few lakes here and there, the rain would extend to and be retained in the centre of the island as well.

However, until that happened, they would need to artificially supply the needed water. With the boy's Semblance, they would be able to grow their operation into the stage where more serious donors would begin to take interest and supply the funds needed for a proper desalinization plant.

"And you are sure that this guy has not pressed you into this?", Lafiel asked the boy.

"N-no, when I heard about this place, I thought I might be able to help, to make a difference", he said nervously, "besides, my family, they-I have nothing else to make of my life."

Lafiel looked at Yonsa questioningly, and in reply, he merely mouthed Pandora. It was enough for her to understand what he meant.

"In that case, I am happy to have you aboard", Lafiel said with a warm smile and enveloped the boy in a hug, "how about we find a room for you to sleep in? If you go out that door and to the left, you will come upon the gardens. Aster will be there tending to the flowers, and she will help you settle in for now."

As the boy left, Yonsa looked at Lafiel with a raised eyebrow, "Aster?"

"She knows her way around the house and it would be good for him to have someone his own age to play with", Lafiel answered.

"Speaking of houses, I noticed that you are having another built", Yonsa commented as he took a sip of tea, only then remembering that it was the one he had used for the demonstration. With a grimace, he switched it with the boy's untouched cup.

"More have taken an interest. I could not fit them all in here", Lafiel answered.

 _More people means a greater chance that someone doesn't share your beliefs_ , Yonsa mused worriedly, but decided not to voice his worries. He didn't want them to fall into an argument so soon after seeing each other again.

"How long will you be staying this time?", Lafiel asked with a hopefulness in her voice that he found hard to disappoint.

 _Until I can get a ride out of here_ , he wanted to answer, especially with this many new faces around. He thought again of what the news report had said had occurred in Vale. The White Fang would tear this place to shreds if they knew.

"No more than three weeks", he answered and cursed his inability to say no to her, "I have made arrangements to meet up with Seishin in Vale in three months. That is, if I can tear him from the place by then."

"What is happening in Vale?", Lafiel asked, seemingly satisfied with his answer.

"From what I heard on the news in Kuo Lagua, there was a Grimm attack in the city. Some White Fang members used an old transit system to break open the walls and Grimm flooded in", Yonsa explained, "strangely though, an Atlesian army under General Ironwood was already in town when it happened, so not much damage was done before the breach was sealed."

"You think they were expecting an attack on the Vytal Festival?", Lafiel wondered, "bringing an army to another nation, even in peacetime, is no light matter."

"Perhaps, but if they were, then they severely overestimated what defences they would need", Yonsa mused, "a dozen or so trained Huntsmen should have been able to clean up the breach with little effort. In any case, they recalled some nearby Huntsmen for extra security, so Seishin likely won't be able to leave until the Vytal Festival is over."

As she fingered her cup, Lafiel gave a small laugh and upon Yonsa's questioning raise of an eyebrow, she elaborated, "I just found it funny that out of the four of us, the only two that actually work as Huntsmen would be you and Seishin."

"Seishin is one. I just take the contracts because you don't pay me", Yonsa quipped and got a light-hearted punch to the shoulder, "in any case, it isn't like the two of you are unhappy with how things have turned out. At this point, I would say that the only thing that could get Pandora to leave that village would be a funeral, and you have never complained about your situation either."

"I do miss the thrill of the hunt once in a while", Lafiel admitted with her hand moving to her right ear seemingly by itself, "and you, and the others. I know that I am needed here, and I _want_ to be here, but I haven't even seen Pandora or Seishin since we graduated. Every day, there is another little thing that requires my attention."

"You could always take a break. Hand over responsibility to someone and come with me to Pandora's village. I am sure that Seishin would hurry to join us if he heard you were coming", Yonsa offered.

"No, I am needed here, but in the future, perhaps", Lafiel said with a slight shake of her head, before she turned her attention to Yonsa, "how about you? Do you ever regret not taking up Pandora's offer? You wouldn't have had to scour Remnant for plants and people that might be of interest to my dreams."

This was a trap if he ever saw one, but Yonsa still answered truthfully, "nope, not even a little. I would have made a lousy teacher, besides."

Lafiel leaned back, relaxed at his answer, "do you think that Pandora begrudges us that none of us took her up on her offer?"

"She doesn't, and she knew when she made them what the answers would be", Yonsa answered assuringly, "you had your own project that you had dreamt of long before she had hers, and Seishin always wanted to be a Huntsman in name and deed. The rest of us just wanted the skills. As for me, well, she said that she knew what I would do well before you asked me to."

"I suppose you are right", Lafiel commented and nervously looked down at her cup, "and what will you do when a single Huntsman traveling Remnant is no longer necessary to keep this up? Would you consider a more _permanent_ place here?"

Yonsa took a long draught of tea and mulled over his words. There was always the White Fang to consider. Him staying here permanently would surely mean that they had to find out sooner or later. Once, he would have not hesitated to answer, but then reality was punched into him yet again.

"Perhaps", he said cautiously, but both of them knew that if she ever asked it of him directly, he would do as she asked. His weakness, it seemed, would be the downfall of both of them.

* * *

At the end, I would like to say thanks for reading the story.

Also, to clarify a few things in regards to what happens afterwards from here; after having seen Volume 5 of RWBY, I like to think that Team LPYS gathered at Pandora's shortly after the fall of Beacon, and that Lafiel and Yonsa went back to Menagerie to live together officially after the ousting of the White Fang.


End file.
